IF this is how the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program of the Aquino administration is being implemented, no wonder it has proven to be far less promising than it’s been touted to be.
We’re talking about what’s going on at Camp John Hay in Baguio City, where the state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) has been engaged in a long-drawn legal dispute with its private developer-partner, Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevco).
Last month the BCDA took over a portion of the former American facility using 20 armed guards, in violation of standing orders from the regional trial court (RTC) and the ruling of an arbitral tribunal of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. (PDRCI) for the peaceful settlement of the legal standoff.
The BCDA also refused to settle its delinquent electricity bills for five Voice of America cottages occupied by its officers, prompting the CJHDevco to cut off power from these facilities.
But rather than settle its overdue bills after the power cut-off, the BCDA resorted to installing jumpers at the five cottages to reconnect these to the main power line.
CJHDevco decided to seek the Baguio City mayor’s intercession after the police had failed to act on the firm’s request for assistance to remove the illegal jumpers at the VOA compound.
Given the police inaction on these incidents, CJHDevco suspects that the law enforcers are in cahoots with the BCDA and its subsidiary John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC), or are probably being pressured to look the other way in the face of such illicit acts by the state-run firm.
CJHDevco had been the developer-private partner of the BCDA for 18 years. But that period had been marked by one legal feud after another, with CJHDevco accusing the BCDA of serial violations of its original lease deal or memorandum of agreement and revised memorandums.
The legal dispute led to a two-year arbitration case that culminated in February with the PDRCI’s rescission of the 18-year-old lease agreement and orders for the lessee to vacate the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and for the BCDA to return P1.42 billion in rental payments to CJHDevco.
The BCDA, headed by its president and CEO Arnel Paciano Casanova, has refused to pay CJHDevco and, worse, has been forcing CJH’s 1,631 sublessees to vacate the SEZ even if they are third-party investors “in good faith” who are protected by law from such arbitration cases or legal disputes between lessors and their principal lessees.
In ordering the eviction of the third-party investors, the BCDA has transgressed the RTC ruling that these sublocators are covered by the law on obligations and contracts, which, according to legal experts, shield third parties acting in good faith from arbitration disputes between lessors and lessees.
Former Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, for instance, emphasized in a recent newspaper column that, “As innocent bystanders who were not parties to the arbitration, [third-party CJH investors] should not be penalized and deprived of what they had paid for in good faith.”
“While the arbitral decision may have settled the dispute between the two parties, it did not touch on the rights and obligations of the investors, locators and condominium owners in Camp John Hay who were not parties to the arbitration,” Panganiban wrote. “But, in good faith, they paid CJHDevco for their rights over the homes, condominiums, golf-club shares and other improvements built thereon by the developer.”
Even lawmakers have taken notice of BCDA’s bullying tactics against CJHDevco and, now, against the CJH sublocators and concessionaires. Party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz of Abakada and Rep. Winston Castelo of the Second District of Quezon City have been urging Congress to investigate the BCDA’s mismanagement of the John Hay SEZ and the reverse privatization that Casanova wants to implement following the PDRCI’s rescission of the agency’s lease accord with CJHDevco.
In House Resolution 1936, Castelo wants the House panels on bases development and on national defense to jointly look into the lapses committed by the BCDA that resulted to contract breaches in its lease agreement with CJHDevco, notably the non-establishment of a One-Stop Action Center.
In a separate privilege speech similarly seeking a House investigation, de la Cruz said the questionable acts of Casanova in mishandling CJH has a “deleterious” effect on the modernization program of the AFP, which is supposed to get 50 percent of lease revenues under the bases-conversion law.
The government’s PPP has “gone haywire resulting from the misguided, misplaced and high-handed management style of the current BCDA leadership,” de la Cruz said.
DOST project picks up speed
QUIETLY and with little publicity, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has been doing its job of tapping local expertise to help solve the challenge of providing convenient, safe and affordable urban transport to the citizenry.
The DOST recently launched in Clark, Pampanga, the prototype of hybrid road train developed by its engineers. The 40-meter-long road train has a maximum speed of 50 kilometers per hour and can accommodate as many as 240 passengers, or 60 for each of the five air-conditioned and interlinked coaches, the last of which carries the vehicle’s generator set and battery system.
As it is a hybrid system, the train produces less smoke emissions compared to conventional vehicles. The engines are elevated inside the vehicle, allowing it to withstand floods as high as 1.5 meters.
The vehicle also harnesses additional energy every time it decelerates through what the DOST calls its “regenerative” breaking capability.
The vehicle was developed by engineers from the DOST-Metals Industry Research and Development Center over three years and was assembled using locally fabricated parts, except for the controls and motors.
The development of the prototype racked up a total cost of P45 million, but the DOST said the actual cost per unit will be cut by at least half if it is produced in commercial quantities. They are willing to sell the license for the vehicle’s design to any local company that intends to mass-produce it. As of now, the DOST said they are already in talks to deploy road train units in Cebu.
The DOST deserves kudos for undertaking this project, which we hope the next administration will continue.
E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.
1 comment
Are our road systems built for this technology? A road-train set is quite long that affects its maneuverability. Besides our roads are narrow in most cities. Further in depth studies must be made before this new transport system be made operational>