BAGUIO CITY—What takeover?
The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) has not yet received a copy of the 72-hour temporary restraining order (TRO) obtained by the developer of Camp John Hay that bars government from assuming control of the former American rest and recreation center, said BCDA president Arnel Paciano Casanova on Wednesday.
But Casanova said the suit filed by the Fil Estate-owned Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevco) only reveals that the firm is “afraid of its own ghosts,” because government is not mounting any action to repossess Camp John Hay.
Executive Judge Iluminada Cabato of the Baguio Regional Trial Court issued the TRO on Tuesday. It took effect on Jan. 24 and will lapse on Jan. 27, the day the RTC clerk of court would raffle off CJHDevco’s complaint, docketed as Civil Case No. 7561-R.
The TRO “restrains [the BCDA] from committing any act tending to wrest control and/or possession of the leased property or any portion thereof, including improvements of the [CJHDevco] and persons claiming rights to the leased property.”
The BCDA may not execute the “forceful occupation and/or [ejection] from the leased premises and/or the award of the rights in the leased property to a new entity,” the order said.
BCDA and CJHDevco had been engaged in a dispute over outstanding debts, which government claims to have ballooned to P3.024 billion. BCDA, in several statements, said CJHDevco is running away from its obligations.
CJHDevco had suspended payments right after entering into a restructured lease agreement with BCDA over what it perceived as government’s contractual breaches, among them its failure to provide all permits, said Alfredo Yñiguez III, the developer’s executive vice president. Vincent Cabreza and Frank Cimatu, Inquirer Northern Luzon