[ manilastandardtoday.com ] June 23, 2011
THE P1.1-billion purchase by the SM Group of a government property near C-5 in 2009 has become the latest contract that the Aquino administration wants rescinded.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government on Tuesday filed an adverse claim before the Pasig City Register of Deeds to prevent the transfer of the 12-hectare piece of land owned by the state-run Philippine Integrated Meat Corp., claiming the government lost over P3 billion based on the property’s zonal valuation.
Commissioner Gerard Mosquera said the commission’s previous officials and the Office of the Solicitor General waived the state’s rights to the lot to “connive” and “fraudulently effect” the property’s sale to the SM Group’s Consolidated Prime Development Corp.
Commission Chairman Andres Bautista went as far as saying that the transaction was “another midnight sale” of the Arroyo administration, having been executed during the final eight months of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacañang.
The commission also said it would petition the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court to reject a compromise agreement between the previous PCGG and the SM Group, even though the Supreme Court approved the deal in August 2010.
The 12-hectare property was originally covered by a lease-purchase agreement between the sequestered Pimeco and the GSIS’s Meat Packing Corp. of the Philippines.
The lease matured in 2009, giving Pimeco purchase rights on the property.
The commission contends it has 100 percent ownership of Pimeco as the state owns 30 percent of the firm, and 70 percent is under sequestration although undergoing litigation at the Sandiganbayan.
The SM Group managed to acquire the disputed property by acquiring the rights of original Pimeco owner Peter Sabido, an alleged Marcos
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