Pasig court sheriff to seize MRT contractor's assets

MANILA, Philippines - The Pasig City regional trial court’s sheriff has ordered the seizure of assets of Metro Rail Transit (MRT) build-operate-transfer contractor MRT Development Corp. (MRTDC) in connection with its unpaid obligations of over $2.8 million.

A notice of garnishment was issued last April 21 by Pasig RTC sheriff Eduardo Bolima to all firms doing business with MRTDC, enjoining them to turn over all assets such as money, credits, and money receivables to cover the unpaid obligations of the firm to MRT construction sub-contractor F.F. Cruz, particularly its subsidiary Filipinas Pre-Fab Building Systems Inc. (FSI).

The unpaid obligation represented the agreed on bonus of FSI for the early completion of the MRT (Light Rail Transit) 3 project in 1998.

The order comes after MRTDC failed to meet its 2008 deadline to pay FSI the full amount owed.

Following the order, the Sheriff also served a notice of garnishment to the MRT’s exclusive advertising arm Trackworks, directing the company to stop payments to MRTDC and instead redirect payments to FSI.

In compliance with the court order, Trackworks has to date already coursed some P37 million in payment to FSI, through the sheriff.

The garnishment order complies with a May 2003 decision by the Construction Industry Arbitration Commission (CIAC), which was affirmed by the Supreme Court in November 2007.

Aside from garnishing Trackworks’ payments, the CIAC also bid out MRTDC’s development rights over 11 of the 13 stations of the MRT.

The decision of the CIAC now raises the question of MRT Devco’s ownership of these so-called development rights over the MRT-3, which includes the rights to operate an advertising business and develop commercial establishments on the line’s facilities in EDSA.

MRTDC is a consortium led by Robert John Sobrepena, a businessman affiliated with real estate firm Fil-Estate and controversial pre-need company College Assurance Plan (CAP).