PCGG seeks to void sale of sequestered firm, land

MANILA, Philippines -  The Presidential Commission on Good Government will ask the Sandiganbayan to nullify a compromise agreement forged during the time of previous PCGG chairman Camilo Sabio involving the sale of a sequestered company and its P4.2-billion Pasig City property for only P900 million.

Lawyer Gerard Mosquera, PCGG commissioner for litigation, said they are preparing a motion to be filed with the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division seeking the nullification of the deal involving a crony of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, Peter Sabido and the Philippine Integrated Meat Co. (Pimeco), which owns a 12-hectare property along C-5 Road in Pasig City.

Mosquera said vital information on the sequestered Pimeco, particularly its 12-hectare property and land acquisition transactions, was not revealed to the court before it gave its approval to the deal early last year.

He stressed that the sale of the land, identified as Consolidated Prime Development Corp. (CPDC), was grossly disadvantageous to the government.

“We’ll seek to nullify the compromise deal on the grounds of fraud,” Mosquera told The STAR in an interview.

Under the agreement, which also involved the Government Service Insurance System, Pimeco and its prime Pasig property, which had a zonal value estimate of P4.2 billion and an estimated fair market value of more than P6 billion, was sold to the CPDC for only P900 million.

Of the P900 million proceeds of the sale, only P100 million went to the PCGG as its share for its ownership of Pimeco and another sequestered firm, Independent Realty Corp. (IRC), which also had a minor stake in Pimeco.

Sabido’s shares of stocks in Pimeco were the subject of a forfeiture case pending with the Fifth Division while the IRC has long ceded its Pimeco shares to the government.