Airport owes landowners P2-B

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) owes the heirs of the late Senator Alejandro Almendras some P2 billion for the use of their property.

This was revealed by MIAA General Manager Edgardo Manda in a statement issued during a press briefing at a Pasay restaurant the other night.

According to Manda, Caridas Cabahug de Almendras, widow of the late senator from Davao, along with her son, Alejandro Almendras Jr. and Ruth Realty Corp., filed Civil Case No. 2002-182 for "ejectment/illegal detainer" against MIAA before the Municipal Trial Court, Branch 78 in Parañaque City.

The Almendras family, he said, is claiming ownership of the 39,722-square meter area which MIAA leased in 1997 to People’s Air Cargo (PAIRCARGO) and Philippine Airport Ground Services (PAGS). The area fell within Transfer of Certificate Title No. S-69212 issued in 1978 in the name of Caridad Almendras covering a total of 72,539 square meters.

In 1994, then MIAA General Manager Guillermo Cunanan designated a portion of a swampy land at the west side of the International Passenger Terminal Building as temporary relocation site for PAIRCARGO as its former site was affected by the construction of the NAIA Centennial Terminal 2.

A number of supplemental lease contracts were entered into by PAIRCARGO and MIAA until 1997 when a revised and restated contract of lease and concession finally set the total area occupied at 39,722 square meters.

PAIRCARGO and PAGS constructed a three-story building in the area worth some P500 million.

In 2000, the Almendras family, through counsel Felix Serena, sought out both PAIRCARGO and MIAA for an explanation on the occupancy. Thereafter, a court case was instituted against MIAA.

The Almendras family has demanded that MIAA surrender the land and rentals it earned plus interest from the lease to PAIRCARGO and PAGS. At the current zonal valuation of P30,000 per square meter, the property is valued at P2.2 billion.

In 2001, the MIAA was offered by the Almendras family the option to buy the property at that amount, Manda’s statement said.

The Almendras family learned that the total rental paid as of December 2000 amounted to P61,592,925.

The MIAA has been generating hundreds of millions of pesos out of a property that it does not own, depriving the real owners of what is rightfully theirs, Manda’s statement also said.

The MIAA should compensate fully the Almendras family for all the loses incurred in the illegal occupancy of their land, in the name of justice and fair play, it also said. – Sandy Araneta