Government mulls partial sale of Mile Long

MANILA, Philippines — The government may opt to sell only a portion of the 2.9-hectare Mile Long property in Makati City to take advantage of the possible increase in the asset’s value once the commercial development of the area starts, according to the Department of Finance.

In an interview, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the DOF may privatize only a portion of the Mile Long property which was previously occupied by Sunvar Realty Development Corp., and keep the remaining lots until the price of the property rises.

“I want to divide that into three or four lots, probably sell two and keep two. I just want to wait for the price to go up. Once the development starts there, prices will go up,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez said he has already informed President Duterte of his plan.

“I told the President already I don’t plan to sell the whole thing, I’ll sell a portion of it. And I explained to him why, once the development starts there the prices will go up so why shouldn’t we benefit from it?” he said.

Dominguez said there is no urgent need to sell the whole property since the government is in a healthy cash position following the Bureau of Treasury’s fund raising activities late last year and early this year.

According to Dominguez, the sale of the Mile Long property remains on track to be conducted by the middle of 2018.

He said the plan, as well as the valuation of the asset, would be finalized by next month.

Earlier, President Duterte expressed his intent to sell Mile Long to generate funds to build houses for soldiers.

This was after the Makati Regional Trial Court ordered Sunvar Realty to vacate the property last August for owing the government P1.656 billion in unpaid rentals.

Gerard Chan, chief privatization officer of the Privatization and Management Office (PMO), earlier said the Mile Long property is one of the big-ticket properties the government may privatize soon.

Aside from this, he said the government is also targeting to privatize about P100 million worth of assets within the first quarter.

As posted on the PMO’s website, these include assets of the Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines, Delta Motors Corp., Development Bank of Rizal, Merchants Investment Corp., Paragon Paper Industries Inc., Peninsula Development Bank, Retired Servicemen Ent. Inc., and Selectra Electronics.