Posted on April 29, 2015 09:57:00 PM [
BusinessWorld Online ]
By Krista A. M. Montealegre, Senior
Reporter
THE JUNE DEADLINE for the submission
of bids for the “Payanig sa Pasig” lot may be too soon, a ranking official of
SM Prime Holdings, Inc. said yesterday, as prospective bidders study legal
issues hounding the prime property in the Ortigas central business district.
THE SKYLINE of the Ortigas business
district -- BW FILE PHOTO
On the sidelines of SM Investments
Corp.’s stockholders meeting in Pasay City yesterday, SM Prime President Hans
T. Sy told reporters that while the 18.48-hectare property is “interesting,”
the company is still “evaluating [its] legal position.”
“I don’t know if this month of May is
enough. Bidding is sometime in June. I’m not sure if it’s enough for us to do
those studies,” Mr. Sy said.
Asked if SM Prime will seek an
extension, he said: “We’ll see. We’re trying to get hold of all our papers.
It’s in our legal [team] and we will discuss. By then we will know whether to
ask for more time or whether to go for it.”
Interested parties can purchase the
bidding package until May 15. The submission of pre-qualification of documents
will run from April 27 to May 15 while a pre-bid conference is scheduled on May
26, 2015. The opening of bids was slated for June 3.
The Presidential Commission on Good
Government (PCGG), an agency tasked to recover ill-gotten wealth of former
dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, is bidding out the property.
PCGG Chairman Andres D. Bautista had
said 20 major real estate developers attended the agency’s April 17 briefing on
the auction of the property despite questions on who owns control and ownership
of the land.
Businessman and known Marcos crony
Jose Y. Campos surrendered the property in 1986 under Mid-Pasig Land
Development Corp.
PCGG officials and members of the
Privatization Council are facing graft charges before the Office of the
Ombudsman filed by BLEMP Commercial of the Philippines, Inc. President Richard
S. Singson, whose company claims ownership of the land.
Other parties, including the Ortigas
family, have asserted too their ownership of the property.
Currently, Mr. Bautista had said PCGG
only controls about 8 hectares of the rectangular lot -- which means tenant
leases are being paid to government -- despite being in possession of the
original 2.4-hectare land title and a reconstituted title for a 16-hectare
parcel as granted by the court in 1988.
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