BCDA, Camp John Hay officials on Convention Center: We can’t pay

BY ISAGANI S. LIPORADA

BAGUIO CITY – The Bases Conversion Development Authority and its development arm Camp John Hay Management Corp. broke silence over the city’s demand for the entities to bankroll the city purchase of the Baguio Convention Center. In a letter received by the mayor’s office on Nov. 8, BCDA president Narciso Abaya and JHMC chair Cristina Corona said BCDA and JHMC “cannot pay” citing its lessee Camp John Hay Development Corp’s default in the payment of lease rentals of Camp John Hay.

In Sept. 26, the city government through Mayor Reinaldo Bautista, Jr. demanded BCDA and JHMC to honor its role as banker of the Jan. 23, 2004 BCC buy deal between the city and the Government Service Insurance System. “If BCDA accedes to the city’s demand, it would be held accountable for paying an amount when such is not yet due,” said Abaya and Corona in the letter.

The BCDA and JHMC officials said in the Jan. 23 purchase agreement, “BCDA’s payment shall be charged against the 25-perdent share of Baguio from the CJH lease payments that BCDA actually received and collected.” “However,” they claimed, “lease payments have not been received and collected from DevCo since 2003.

DevCo unilaterally and unjustifiably suspended payments.” A case for arbitration between BCDA and Devco is pending in the Court of Appeals. City legal officer Melchor Rabanes reacting to the BCDA-JHMC letter said, “If the city needs to go to court if only to look into BCDA’s purse, it should do so by all means to protect the interest of the people of Baguio.” “Besides,” he added, “BCDA and JHMC cannot just read the purchase deal to suit its own purposes.

The agreement provided BCDA shall ‘remit annually for the next 7-years’ to GSIS the amount of P35-million plus 12-percent interest per annum on the supposedly but not really diminishing balance until the facility is paid in full.” “With what they are saying, it would seem as if the city is again bound for the ropes.

A fairly large amount of our shares from the lease rentals would in effect be earmarked for payment of interests in the BCC deal rather than other equally important projects had amortizations been paid religiously to the letter. What if they decided to pay on the seventh year?” Bautista earlier made legal threat saying the city’s demand is a “prelude to the taking of appropriate legal action in the event BCDA and JHMC would not take any favorable step to avert the threat of GSIS takeover of BCC.”

“As soon as the mayor’s back, we are definitely pushing for final demand to show BCDA and JHMC we cannot renege on our duty to give the people of Baguio what is due them,” Rabanes said. Asked whether the legal office is ready for court battle, Rabanes said, “All we need is the green light from our aldermen and the chief executive. Our battle plan is primed up and our ammunitions are ready.