SBMA takes back land leased by Manila Times boss
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has repossessed a journalism school complex and a nursing school facility operated by companies of The Manila Times owner Dante Ang for allegedly failing to settle their arrears amounting to about P110 million.
SBMA legal department manager Michael Quintos on Friday said The Manila Times School of Journalism Inc. (TMTSJI) and the The Manila Times College of Subic Inc. (TMTCSI) failed to secure a preliminary injunction against the repossession due to the unpaid obligations.
TMTSJI, which occupies a 2.5-hectare complex, owed the SBMA P60.29 million as of July 4, while TMTCSI, located on 11.6 hectares, has outstanding accounts amounting to $543,552.10 (P29.1 million per Friday’s exchange rate) plus P21.04 million in common usage service area fees as of July 31, Quintos said.
The SBMA took over TMTSJI and TMTCSI at George Dewey complex in the Subic Gateway area on Aug. 3, shutting down the journalism school but allowing the nursing college to continue operating.
TMTCSI, formerly George Dewey Medical College, occupies the former Cubi Hospital complex, which includes the former US Naval Hospital, a 90-bed facility established in 1956 and designated as the US Navy Regional Medical Center in 1977. The complex today includes school buildings and nine houses.
TMTJSI complex consists of several buildings that used to house George Dewey High School (GDHS), which served US Navy dependents here from 1957 to 1992.
REPOSSESSED Workers from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority close the entrance to The Manila Times College of Subic Inc. and The Manila Times School of Journalism Inc. at George Dewey complex inside the free port (aerial photo below) for failing to pay arrears amounting to about P110 million. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
‘Plain malicious’
Ang, chair emeritus of The Manila Times, said the college “does not owe the SBMA anything.”
In the Aug. 22 edition of the Times, Ang wrote: “Either the SBMA is blind, incompetent or just plain malicious; it continues to bill the college for the alleged obligations left behind by its past lessee.”
The SBMA chair and administrator, Wilma Eisma, deplored what she described as the “miserable condition” of the former high school, which, she said, “has been left to waste after 14 years of neglect by [TMTSJI].” She said the condition of the former GDHS was “heartbreaking.”
“Imagine what happened to these government properties—roofs have caved in, doors missing, walls vandalized, the gym flooded and the grounds have virtually returned to the forest,” Eisma said in a statement.
Quintos said the SBMA issued a final notice of default to both companies on March 23, which granted them 30 days to “cure [their] contractual defaults.”
TMTSJI did not comply, leading the SBMA board of directors to terminate the lease agreement.
‘Erroneous, no factual basis’
Ang disputed the bills “as they are erroneous and have no factual basis.”
The companies petitioned the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Olongapo City for a writ of preliminary injunction, arguing that they should be protected from the SBMA’s termination of the lease agreement and the repossession of the leased properties.
But Judge Raymond Viray of RTC Branch 75 ruled that the court was “not satisfied the Times had a clear and unmistakable right to the injunctive writ.”
While the SBMA was technically taking over the facilities at the Cubi Hospital complex, it would still allow the Times to operate its school for one year, Eisma said.
“This is in consideration of the students who have already enrolled for this school year,” she said.
In his Times article, Ang said the SBMA was making “a big issue of our alleged failure to develop the facility in 14 years as if time would change the original number of buildings.”
“There are only five structures and that won’t change, no matter how much time may have lapsed; not in a million years,” Ang said.
Motion for reconsideration
“TMTSJI may have lost its plea for an injunction,” he said, “but there remains a pending motion for reconsideration, and the merits of the case are yet to be heard.”
“It might take a while before the Olongapo judge could decide on the merits of the case. In the meantime, the school is still operating despite claims of the SBMA to the contrary. It was given one year to operate by the SBMA but even that is debatable,” he said.
