Camp John Hay water refilling firm fights closure

MANILA, Philippines - A water refilling company in Camp John Hay has demanded the immediate recall of an order of the John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC) to close its operations.

In a five-page demand letter obtained by The STAR, JHMC vice president and chief operating officer Mita Angela Dimalanta said John Hay Spring Inc. (JHSI) should stop their operations for alleged violations of environmental and other laws.

“The supposed violations are obvious trumped-up charges to harass our client and needlessly drag it into the ongoing dispute between your office and the Camp John Hay Development Corp.,” stated the letter signed by JHSI lawyer Maria Florita Cruz.

JHSI also denied JHMC’s claims that their business permit and the permit issued to them by the Bureau of Food and Drug (BFAD) have expired and that they have no clearance from the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA).

“Your acts of issuing the CDO (cease and decease order) stopping our client’s business operation, and forcibly prohibiting our client and its employees from conducting business through the use of armed private security guards are patently illegal, invalid, baseless, and unenforceable,” Cruz said.

Cruz said JHMC does not have the power to issue, much less implement, a CDO nor demand the closure of any establishment. She said JHMC is a subsidiary corporation of the BCDA pursuant to Section 1 of Executive Order 103.

As a domestic and private corporation, JHMC “has no regulatory power or authority to legally and validly issue and implement the CDO and prevent our client from conducting its business,” Cruz added.

“Certainly, your act of issuing CDO and the second letter were not only illegal and in violation of our client’s constitutionally protected rights, but more importantly, was as usurpation of authority, which is criminally and administratively punishable under existing laws, rules and regulations,” Cruz pointed out.