[ manilastandardtoday.com ]
Camp John Hay Development Corp. on
Wednesday took to task officials of the Bases Conversion Development Authority
for resorting to a “smear campaign” instead of complying with its contractual
obligations under the 2008 “Restructuring Memorandum of Agreement.
CJHDevco executive vice president and
chief operating officer Alfredo Yñiguez said the company’s actions against BCDA
for “breaches and failures” of contract are based on solid legal grounds.
“All leasehold titles and contracts
with CJHDEVCO to date are valid,” he said in a statement. “CJHDevco challenges
BCDA to adhere to the rule of law by laying its claims before the courts and
Philippine Dispute Resolution Center instead of engaging in a smear campaign
against CJHDevco and its Chairman & CEO, Mr. Robert John L. Sobrepeña.”
Yñiguez called on the state-owned
agency to face the issues under existing agreements.
“Time and time again, BCDA has refused
to submit itself for arbitration,” he said, referring to its complaint for
arbitration against BCDA seeking to confirm the validity of its decision to
rescind last Jan. 9, 2012 its 2008 RMOA due to BCDA’s alleged “failures and
breaches,” including the agency’s non-compliance of its obligation to set up
the “One-Stop Action Center” that would facilitate development of the John Hay
Special Economic Zone.
In its complaint filed before the
Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, CJHDevco also asked the Arbitral Tribunal
that in case amendment of the RMOA was unavailing, it should order the original
lease agreement between CJHDevco and BCDA as “deemed rescinded,” and direct the
agency to pay the John Hay developer P14.44 billion for actual damages and P15
million as cost of the suit.
In the compromise settlement with BCDA
on July 1, 2008, CJHDevco agreed to several concessions, including the
assumption of “prior rental obligations” amounting to more than P2.69 billion
and current rental of P150 million all of which was not reciprocated.
In its Jan. 9, 2012 letter to BCDA president and chief executive Arnel Casanova,
CJHDevco demanded compliance, particularly the OSAC provision to speed up the
economic zone’s construction and commercial operation.
Yniguez debunked insinuations of any
rental arrear citing the agency’s lapses.
“We dispute the reference by BCDA to
P2.9 billion rentals from 2003 to 2008 because BCDA was in default during this
period,” he said. “BCDA also failed its warranties of giving Special Economic
Zone Benefits to CJHDevco from 2003 to 2007 and its ‘30-day guaranty’ on
issuance of all local and national permits for CJHDevco projects from 2008
onwards.”
Yñiguez said P1.44 billion has been
paid BCDA despite a 5-year impasse amid the
culpable delay in the issuance of building and occupancy permits needed
by the developer for it to operate.
“To date, we have about 39 unanswered
applications for permits pending since 2008,” he said. “These range from
occupancy, tree-cutting, earth balling to excavation over 18) hectares of
supposedly revenue-generating projects crucial to the maintenance and very
existence of CJHDevco.”
(Published in the Manila Standard Today
newspaper on /2012/April/26)
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