Ayala Land to focus on other projects in Negros Occidental

BACOLOD CITY—Following the delay in the review of the transaction on sale and lease of a 7.7-hectare property in this city that is owned by the provincial government, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) will focus on its other projects in Negros Occidental.

In a letter dated April 4 released by Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon to the media last week, ALI senior vice president Jose Emmanuel Jalandoni said they would focus on their Northpoint project in Talisay City.

Jalandoni, however, assured Marañon of the company’s commitment to Negros as a “growth center” for its development, and said they would continue to look forward to bringing more quality products and lifestyle developments to the Negrenses.

ALI had planned to invest P6 billion to develop the provincial government’s property in Bacolod City into a mixed-use civic and commercial district.

The provincial government had awarded ALI the right to purchase 3.66 hectares of the property and to lease the remaining 4.04 hectares for a period of 50 years in a negotiated sale.

However, SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPHI), one of the participants in the bidding for the project held July 22, 2011, opposed the decision and filed a petition last year before the Bacolod Regional Trial Court seeking the annulment of any negotiated sale and lease by the provincial government of its property to ALI.

In its petition, SMPHI claimed that it submitted a far more superior bid than that of ALI in the July 7 bidding, but which was later declared a failure after both SM Prime and ALI allegedly submitted bids below the appraised value of the property. The awards committee only disclosed the appraisal value of P19,500 a square meter after the actual bidding, SMPHI pointed out.

The SMPHI also asked the court that it be declared the winning bidder of the July 7 bidding on the property. The next hearings on the case have been set on April 27 and May 25.

On the other hand, the provincial government has submitted the deed of sale and lease agreements on the property to the Commission on Audit (CoA) for review as required.

Negros Occidental provincial administrator Enrique Pinongan said in an earlier interview that the provincial government had complied with the requirements of CoA by submitting the contracts for its approval on July 22 last year.

But the creation of the CoA technical team to evaluate and reappraise the value of the Capitol property was expected to delay further the realization of the project, Pinongan said.

Marañon, who has blamed CoA for the delay in the approval of the Capitol-ALI deal, said they had no choice but to deprioritize the Capitol Civic Center project, in order to move on and focus on other development projects in Negros Occidental.