State flying school says land swap disadvantageous

MANILA, Philippines - Officials of the Philippine State College of Aeronautics (Philsca) said that they will invoke the invalidity of the land swap agreement entered into by their former president with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to remain in their current 1.7 hectare campus in Pasay City.

Lawyer Gonzalo Duque, a member of Philsca’s board of trustees representing the Senate committee on education chairman Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, said that the board has repeatedly invalidated the land swap agreement entered into by former Philsca president Dr. Enerico Sampang with the BCDA in 2004, which makes the school still the uncontested owner of the land where the campus sits on currently.

Duque said that with the latest value appraisal of the 1.7 hectare property placing its value at around P1.2 billion and with the transfer site offered by the BCDA being valued at a mere P600 to P700 million, the Philsca board has no choice but to disapprove or reject the land swap deal. The value of the relocation site could even be lower or almost worthless since it has been found to be flood-prone and is on a faultline, Duque said. Duque, former president of the Lyceum of Northwestern Luzon in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, owned by his family, was also a former president of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities.

Noel Navigar, Philsca Non-Teaching Employees Association president, also clarified that the 1.7 hectare land was not donated (as earlier reported by The Star) by the BCDA but was purchased by the school for P96 million in 2001. ”Philsca bought that land for P96 million so they cannot just remove us just like that,” Navigar told The Star.

It will be recalled that the school is opposing the BCDA’s move to relocate them to a spanking new but unfortunately flood prone and “unstable” campus by the time the next school year opens in June. The relocation site, which is also 1.7 hectares, has been certified to be prone to flooding and was “shaky” due to its proximity to an earthquake faultline.

A Geo-Hazard Assessment Report of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau has validated previous concerns raised by Phisca officers about the flooding problem and earthquake faultline concerns on their proposed relocation site. – Rainier Allan Ronda