Businessman Robert
John Sobrepena, chairman of Camp John Hay Development Corp., has been
cleared of charges of estafa filed in a Pasay City court by Arnel Casanova,
president of the state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
Pasay RTC judge Pedro De Leon Gutierrez ruled
that contrary to Casanova’s claim that CJHDevco had reneged on its rental
obligations as longtime private partner, it was actually a slew of
factors—mostly traceable to BCDA—that led to a deferral of the lease
payments on this ex-US military base once known as Camp John Hay.
More importantly, Judge Gutierrez said that far
from being a unilateral move by CJHDevco, the rental payment suspension was
permitted by the pre-Casanova BCDA by virtue of three (3) Memorandums of
Agreement (MOAs) approved not only by then-chairman and now-Public Works
Secretary Rogelio Singson but by the Office of the President (OP) and Office of
the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) as well.
In response to this RTC’s dismissal of
Casanova’s estafa case against Sobrepeña, CJHDevco executive vice president
(EVP) & chief operating officer (COO) Alfredo Yñiguez said that, “At the
onset, we knew this was a harassment case. The board was cleared of charges by
the prosecutor in June so it was odd that a case was still filed against Mr. Sobrepeña.”
Contrary
to BCDA’s claim, ,this Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. (PDRCI) arbitration case actually stemmed from at
least ten (10) MOA and RMOA violations by BCDA, namely the:
1. Delay
in the release of the Environmental Compliance Certificate (without which not even groundbreaking could be done)
until two (2) years into the project;
2. Delay
in the turnover of 32 hectares of the leased area (done only in May 2000);
3. Failure
to deliver some 79% of the 18-hectare developable footprint of the leased
property;
4. Failure
to immediately demolish pre-1996 existing structures within the leased property
at JHSEZ (completed only in 2003);
5. Supreme
Court’s withdrawal of the tax and duty incentives within the leased JHSEZ area
as warranted by BCDA;
6. Failure
to secure approval by the Commission on Audit (COA) for the BCDA-CJHDevco MOA)
dated July 14, 2000;
7. Delay
in the issuance of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the JHSEZ;
(accomplished only in 2000);
8. Delay
in securing a MOA with the Bureau of Customs (BOC);
9. Failure
to work on the lifting of the local ban on the processing and issuance of all
developmental, building and tree-cutting permits within JHSEZ from August 2004
to 2007; and
10.
Non-creation of the mandated One Stop Action Center (OSAC) to process and issue
all national and local developmental permits and other permits
needed by CJHDevco and its locators.
“This decision only emphasizes that Mr.
Sobrepeña and CJHDevCo have always been upfront and transparent in our dealings
with BCDA,” added Yñiguez
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