MANILA TIMES Published : Thursday, June 07, 2012
MORE than P11.5 billion in projected earnings were lost to Camp John Hay
Development Corp. (CJH DevCo) in the last five years after they were
deprived of needed business permits, licenses and clearances by the
Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) which gave them the
go-ahead to develop Camp John Hay.
CJH DevCo spokesman Manuel Ubarra disclosed to the media on
Wednesday that the various breaches of BCDA to its contract have sent
chilling effect to investors.
“They are doing everything to give
us a hard time,” Ubarra said, referring to the leadership of incumbent
BCDA President Arnel Casanova.
CJH DevCo has invested P7 billion in the property since the beginning of its contract.
Ubarra
belied Casanova claims that CJH DevCo has not been paying lease
rentals: “If he would only bother to check the records instead of just
inventing stories, he will see that CJH DevCo has in fact already paid
BCDA a total of P1.4 billion in lease rentals.” Ubarra told newsmen at
the weekly Fernandina Media Forum at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San
Juan City.
He said that while BCDA has only delivered 20% of the
required properties based on the contract, CJH DevCo has already paid
lease rentals of over 35% of the projected lease rentals based on the
original lease agreement that is why “there is an overpayment to BCDA.”
Former
Nueva Ecija Rep. Rene Diaz, who was also at the same forum, said that
the BCDA-John Hay row is an economic tragedy because it resulted in lost
revenues not only for CJH DevCo but also for the City of Baguio.
