P10-B Romualdez property in Leyte decaying due to poor maintenance

TOLOSA, Leyte - An estimated P10 billion worth of properties in Samar and Leyte belonging to the family of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos may be lost because of lack of funds for maintenance.

Dr. Benito Go, regional representative of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), told The STAR yesterday that most of the properties, like the 42-hectare Romualdez ancestral home in Barangay Olot and four other expensive properties, are not earning any income.

The Romualdez properties have been under the PCGG's physical possession since late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown in 1986.

Go said the money from income-generating properties are used to pay the salaries of 28 employees whose job is to maintain these properties.

"What is left is the one being used for the maintenance of these income-generating properties only," he said.

Go said three mothballed broadcast stations under PCGG control are also in a state of disrepair. These are PRTV 12, dyBR-FM and dyMM-AM, all formerly with the defunct Universal Broadcasting Corp.

"There is no money to maintain them because these properties are not income-generating," he said. "There is no more maintenance."

Go said the PCGG office in Eastern Visayas was instructed to maintain a "hands-off" policy in the 500-hectare Romualdez property in Sta. Margarita, Samar.

The property, which has a huge fishpond, is currently under the care of the town mayor who was designated by PCGG Commissioner George Sarmiento, he added.

Go said the two-story Greenhouse, which is owned by Tacloban City Mayor Alfredo "Bejo" Romualdez, was forcibly taken from the PCGG by Romualdez's overseer, Arturo Bayaya, in 1998.

He said the expensive property, which is located at the corner of Juan Luna and Burgos streets, was being rented by a judge at P1,500 a month.

He said PCGG Commissioner Reynaldo Guiao had already issued an order to Bayaya to vacate the premises, but that Bayaya had ignored the order.

Bayaya has been occupying the property for two years now, refusing to pay monthly rentals to the government, he added.

Go said that in 1998, Chairman Magtanggol Gunigundo ordered local PCGG personnel to remit half of the properties' income to the central office in Manila.

Since 1986, several Romualdez properties, which are mostly in Tacloban City, have been used as "public utility" by the previous administration to increase the maintenance funds for these frozen assets.

The STAR learned that the ground floor of the People's Center and Library, which has 20,000 volumes of books on the second floor, is being rented out at P5,000 daily for trade fairs and other activities.

The adjacent Sto. Niño Shrine and Heritage Museum, which houses millions of dollars worth of paintings, furniture, ivory and porcelain, is also open to the public at P20 per person.

The Nipa Hut Complex is being leased by three government agencies. The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board is paying P6,700 a month, the Bureau of Mines and Geo-Sciences, P15,000, and the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) of Leyte, P7,125 a month.

The old residence of former ambassador and governor Benjamin "Kokoy" Romualdez is being used as the PENRO's office.

The 18-hole golf course at the Olot property is being rented out to American Elmer Hatfield at P1,000 a month. The Olot property is a Caribbean-style residence with an old grotto and a Spanish-era tower overlooking the beach.