Loren wants BCDA’s powers clipped

Senator Majority Leader Loren Legarda is seeking restrictions on the "awesome, vast and unregulated powers" of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) over the sale, lease or development of prime real estate that used to be military bases.

The proposed limits are contained in Bill 721 that Legarda filed with the Senate yesterday.

Aside from clipping the vast powers of the BCDA, the measure would give the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) wider role in the sale, lease or development of its former bases to ensure that it gets its lawful share from those deals.

Legarda said the present law on bases conversion, Republic Act 7227, "has marginalized the AFP’s interest."

She said the law does not give the military or the Department of National Defense a significant role in the disposition or development of its assets despite the fact that military lands are being sold, leased or developed for the benefit of the Armed Forces.

As a result, she said the military does not get its legal share from the disposition of its assets.

Under Bill 721, the AFP will have representatives in the BCDA board. Its share from the disposition of its lands would be increased from 35 percent to 55 percent and would not be limited to sales transactions, but also to lease, joint venture and similar modes of development.

Strategically located bases and stations should be exempt from conversion and declared as military reservations.

"It is tragic that the AFP’s share from BCDA proceeds is limited to the sale of lands. Proceeds from lease, joint venture agreements and other similar arrangements do not benefit the AFP, which is supposed to be the prime beneficiary of the BCDA transactions," Legarda said.

Such practice violates the intent of the bases conversion law, she said. — Jess Diaz