Baguio gov’t to appeal case on convention center sale

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – The city government will again appeal its case on the purchase of the Baguio Convention Center after the Government Service Insurance Service refused the P50 million installment paid by the Bases Conversion Development Authority for the facility.

Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. said he will seek a meeting with GSIS and the BCDA to iron out the problem.

The GSIS through senior vice president Cecil Feleo said GSIS did not accept the amortization payment “due to the default incurred by the LGU (local government unit)-Baguio of its yearly amortization for the period covering 2005-2008.”

“The breach of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by GSIS and LGU-Baguio led to the cancellation of the MOA and that the only remedy left by LGU-Baguio is to settle the account in FULL in the amount of P294,000,000,” Feleo noted in a letter to BCDA.

The recent payment was supposedly only the third payment made by the BCDA for the facility to fulfill its part in the MOA that dates back to January 24, 2004. The city paid a total of P100 million in the past.

As per the deal, the GSIS agreed to sell the convention center to the city in amount of P250 million, the payment to be taken from the city’ s 25 percent share from the lease of Camp John Hay to be remitted by the BCDA.

BCDA, however, failed to deliver the amortizations on the deadlines set under the MOA which prompted the GSIS last year to demand the city to vacate the facility with information that it had terminated the contract because of the city’s failure to remit the amortizations.

BCDA president and chief executive officer Narciso Abaya called the city’s attention to the GSIS’ position and even asked the mayor to address the issue at once.

“May we respectfully request that the issues involving the MOA between the GSIS and LGU Baguio be addressed in order to enable BCDA to facilitate the partial payment of the acquisition cost of the Baguio Convention Center,” Abaya wrote.

The mayor expressed hopes that the issue would be threshed out at once to facilitate the city’s acquisition of the facility.