Ayala offers Negros Occidental legal aid on SM raps

BACOLOD CITY , Philippines  — Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) has offered legal assistance to the Negros Occidental provincial government after rival SM Prime Holdings Inc. has obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Court of Appeals last week seeking to stop the P3.5-billion Capitol-Ayala Land contract, involving more than 7.7 hectares of prime property in Bacolod, Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday said.

"It's their case now," the governor said after meeting with Ayala Land vice president Jose Emmanuel Jalandoni at the Capitol yesterday. The meeting came after Ayala Land issued a statement last Friday that they will not comment on the 60-day TRO issued by the CA's 20th Division in Cebu City last Wednesday because it is "not a party to the case."

Ayala Land maintained it submitted a bid "in good faith and in compliance with the requirements of law and procedure." It said: "We remain confident that the decision of the provincial government to award the project to Ayala Land will be sustained by the courts."

But Marañon said the Capitol has not yet received an official copy of the TRO until yesterday even if SM Prime has been sending copies to the Office of the Governor and other Capitol departments since Thursday last week. "Yes, the TRO is vague and actually, technically, officially we have not yet received the TRO until now. The copies (that reached the Capitol) were the ones sent by SM," the governor said.

The Negros Occidental Provincial Board approved last Wednesday the Deed of Conditional Sale for the 3.65-hectare land worth P750.033 million, and Contract for Lease for the 4.048-hectare property worth P2.755 billion.

Without the official TRO, the process of sale and lease of the property continues because it has already been awarded to Ayala Land and has also been approved by the PB, Marañon said, even as he refused to discuss what legal action the provincial government will take against SM Prime. "It's an option, although the usual procedure would be to file a motion for reconsideration." (FREEMAN)