Uniwide wants PEA contract voided

MANILA, Philippines - The Uniwide Sales Realty and Resources Corp. (USRRC) has taken legal action to compel the government to take back a 40-hectare reclamation property sold to Manila Bay Development Corp. (MBDC) in 1988 over the latter’s alleged failure to perform its contractual obligation to develop the land into a business district.

USRRC lawyer Salvador Hababag told reporters in Manila they have filed a civil case seeking to void the sale by the Public Estates Authority (PEA) to MBDC of the 410,467 square-meter parcel of the Central Business Park II along Macapagal Boulevard near the Roxas Boulevard-Coastal Road junction in Parañaque City.?

The firm cited as basis in the suit filed with the Paranaque City regional trial court Branch 195 MBDC’s failure to introduce after 26 years any development on what was promised to be a Greenhills-type complex.

USRRC also cited MBDC’s judicial admission in another case that “it did not make any commitment of development” with respect to this Central Business Park II lot.

Hababag explained that such admission would render the respondent firm in default in both the original deed of sale in 1988 and the supplemental accord in 1989, as it has had “no intention from the very beginning to develop the property, but acquired the same for speculative purposes only, contrary to the conditions of the award.”

He likewise cited as basis a 2012 ruling of Paranaque RTC Branch 274 that ordered MBDC to “reform” its “iniquitous” lease contract with Uniwide by extending the lease period and doing away with annual rate increases, on the ground that one major reason for Uniwide’s difficulty in meeting its rental payments was the lessor’s failure to make good on its promise to transform the area into a business-commercial district.

In that case, USRRC chairman Jimmy Gow had testified in court that he decided in 1992 to put up Uniwide’s Coastal Mall there after being repeatedly assured by MBDC’s Jacinto Ng that he would develop it into a Greenhills-type district.

Ng is the founder of the Republic Biscuit Corp., which was a major food supplier of the retail chain during its heyday when it controlled—through the Uniwide Warehouse Club—some 50 supermarkets in Metro Manila.

MBDC president George Chua countered in court, though, that the lessor had made no “development commitment” to Gow in exchange for his leasing 20 hectares of the reclamation property with Coastal Road frontage.

The complainant said this only proved that the sale of the property to MBDC by PEA was “is clearly disadvantageous to the government and the general public” and must therefore be “reviewed and cancelled.”

Apart from this relief, the USRRC also asked the court to order MBDC to reimburse the petitioner’s Attorney’s fees amounting to P600,000.?

Hababag said the filing of new civil suit was approved by the Uniwide Group in a resolution passed by its board last Sept. 15.

Lastly, the lawyer explained that the case was filed only recently since their client was able to obtain only last July the PEA records showing that MBDC had managed to acquire Central Business Park II through public bidding, in which a major condition set by the seller PEA was for the winning bidder to submit a five-year “implementation schedule” for the property’s development plan, and that at least 60 percent of this schedule was to be completed on the fifth year of that agreement.       

This civil case is but the latest in a slew of legal actions taken against MBDC and Ng in the hope of recovering P381 million in “defrauded” rental payments from the Uniwide Group, which built Coastal Mall on a 10-hectare parcel of this Business Park II property in 1997, based on Ng’s repeated assurances to Gow back then that MBDC would develop its 40-hectare estate into a Greenhills-type commercial district.