BAGUIO CITY – Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr.
Thursday called for the subpoena of Camp John Hay Development Corporation
(CJHDevCo) officials before the House Special Committee on Bases Conversion,
amid the government’s ongoing multi-billion case against the Robert
Sobrepeña-led company.
CJHDevCo has been
charged with owing the government P3.4 billion in lease payments in the John
Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ).
Out of this amount,
P850 million is reportedly owed to Baguio City, as the local government has a
25% share in the rental payments.
Government records
show that CJHDevCo, which had acquired the lease of 247 hectares of Camp John
Hay in 1996, repeatedly defaulted on its rental obligations, despite constant
demands of payment from the government and multiple restructurings of the lease
agreement.
This resulted in the
ballooning of CJHDevCo’s debt, and prompted the government to terminate the
lease agreement in 2012.
Aside from the
subpoena, Aliping also called for CJHDevCo’s submission of its financial
statements from 1996 to present, as well as its contracts with locators and
concessionaires, as the company purportedly has continued to earn from its
operations despite its non-payment of rentals.
Aliping said “the
interest of the city is very much prejudiced. Equity demands that CJHDevCo must
pay the rentals or the shares to the city.”
“The staggering amount
that CJHDevCo owes the city and its people could very well have been used for
crucial city projects,” he added. “The people of Baguio are ultimately paying
for CJHDevCo’s refusal to pay the government.”
The Baguio lawmaker
had already been championing the increase of funding for various city projects,
including road rehabilitation, livelihood programs and other grassroots
initiatives.
Several organizations
have already been given livelihood funds worth more than P1 million through a
special program spearheaded by Aliping in partnership with the Department of
Labor and Employment and the Department of Trade and Industry.
Meanwhile, Bases
Conversion and Development Authority
BCDA president Arnel
Casanova informed the House committee on bases conversion that the unpaid
rentals of CJHDC allegedly accumulated since 1996, when the lease agreement
between the developer and the government was signed.
He said CJHDC had been
defaulting on its lease payments since 1997.
He said the government
agreed three times to restructure the accumulated debt but still, the developer
defaulted, claiming it was incurring losses.
“However, we have
belatedly discovered from the Securities and Exchange Commission that CJHDC
declared dividends to its shareholders in 1998, 1999 and 2000. This belies
their claim that they incurred losses during those years,” he said.
He added that in May
2012, the government was forced to terminate its lease agreement with the
developer and tried to take over Camp John Hay, but Executive Judge
IluminadaCabato of the Baguio City regional trial court prevented it from doing
so.
Aliping Jr. decried
CJHDC’s alleged refusal to let BCDA take over the property despite its failure
to pay rentals.
Other committee
members wondered why the government seems helpless in recovering a valuable
asset and allowing rentals to pile up since 1996, or over a period of 18 years.
No officer of CJHDC
showed up in the hearing. Company officials wrote the committee that they could
not attend because the issue is pending in court.
On motion of Aliping,
the committee voted to subpoena CJHDC officials to attend its next hearing.
It also required the
company to submit its annual financial statements since 1996 up to last year,
and all lease agreements with Camp John Hay locators, also since 1996.
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