By Danny B.
Dangcalan (The Philippine Star) | Updated July 9, 2013 - 12:00am
Bacolod City,
Philippines – After saying last year that it wants to “disengage” from the
project, property giant Ayala Land Inc. said it is still interested to proceed
with its P6-billion Capitol Civic Center on the 7.7-hectare prime property of
the Negros Occidental provincial government located in Bacolod.
ALI said that
it is willing to proceed with the Capitol project if the court case on the said
property filed by rival bidder SM Prime Holdings Inc. is “resolved with
finality in favor of the province.”
In a letter
to Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Maranon Jr. dated July 3, ALI senior vice
president Emilio Tumbocon said: “Please trust that your steadfast support and
advancement for our transaction, notwithstanding the challenges, weigh in
greatly in our consideration of our position and assessment of our plans.”
“While we are
open to proceed with the Capitol project, we remain seriously concerned with
the pending legal case as this compromises our ability to acquire clean and
undisputed legal title to the property and undertaking the full development of
the same, particularly that area subject of our deed of conditional sale,
especially since our plans require us to develop the area into components which
are intended to be marketed and sold,” Tumbocon wrote further.
“If you are
amenable to our suggestion, we are willing to sit down with you to discuss the
manner by which we could proceed with the transaction,” Tumbocon, also ALI’s
group head for Visayas-Mindanao and Superblock projects, said.
In a press
conference Friday, Maranon, however, said the property is now up for lease
only, and is likely to be re-bid.
The 5,000
square meters of the 7.7-hectare property originally awarded to ALI is now
under negotiation with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the governor said.
The remaining
property would only be for a long-term lease of 35 years, whose re-bidding
would be open again for all interested companies, Maranon added.
He noted that
a long-term lease is better than a purchase of the property since the lease
would only need an approval of the Sanggunian Panglalawigan while the latter
needs the approval of the Commission on Audit (COA).
Moreover, the
governor said he expects the case filed by SM Prime against the Capitol to be
dismissed soon.
ALI had
blamed the more than one-year delay of the contracts at COA as one of its
reasons in deciding to disengage from the project. It also cited the ongoing
case on the property before a local court as a legal impediment in its
development of the property.
In July 2011,
the Provincial Capitol’s Committee on Awards and Disposal of Real Properties
had awarded the sale of 36,587 square meters (3.6 hectares) and the lease of
40,481 square meters (4.04 hectares) to ALI after SM Prime failed to join an
announced negotiated bidding. The property is surrounding the Provincial
Capitol.
But SM Prime
filed a petition before the Regional Trial Court in Bacolod seeking the
annulment of any negotiated sale and lease of the provincial government
property to ALI.
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