Tension up in John Hay as BCDA seen to use force

BAGUIO CITY—Tension is gripping Camp John Hay as the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) insists on taking over 247 hectares of the former American rest and recreation base that it had leased to private developer Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevco) despite a court order preventing it from doing so.

An officer of the security agency tapped by CJHDevco to guard the contested facilities said BCDA and its subsidiary, John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC), were ready to use force in the takeover.

Albert Escalderon, chief of Warbird Security Agency, said his men gathered intelligence reports about the supposed plan of BCDA and JHMC “to forcibly take over the entire leased premises.”

“Our main concern is that your security guards posted within the John Hay premises were ordered to shoot anybody who would stand in the way during the forcible takeover by BCDA and JHMC,” he said in a letter to Placido Urbanes III, general manager of  Catalina Security Agency, which was hired by the government agency.

Escalderon informed Urbanes of the writ of preliminary injunction recently issued by Judge Cleto Villacorta of Baguio City Regional Trial Court Branch 6 stopping BCDA from taking over the leased properties.

Alfredo Yñiguez, executive vice president and chief operating officer of CJHDevco, said at stake are nearly P1.5 billion remitted to government, jobs for 2,000 people, 15,000 tourist arrivals weekly, the operations of dozens of firms in the camp and the maintenance of Baguio as a premier tourist site.

Lawyer Arnel Paciano Casanova, BCDA president, sent CJHDevco a BCDA board-approved notice terminating the CJHDevco lease development contract and ordering CJHDevco to leave the premises.

Yñiguez said the injunction applies to the termination notice also.

He said it would last until the court rules on a civil suit filed by CJHDevco against BCDA in February.

BCDA issued the lease termination order, believing that the injunction had not yet been enforced, Casanova told reporters here.

“Our lawyers have advised us that Mr. Casanova acted arbitrarily and without basis, using accusations instead of facts as basis to terminate a valid and binding contract,” Yñiguez said in a statement.

Casanova said JHMC will operate the assets that CJHDevco will leave behind. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon