NG eyes P100-B from sale of National Bilibid Prisons reservation

The cash-starved Arroyo administration is turning to the long-delayed privatization of the New Bilibid Prisons Reservation in Muntinlupa, the government’s last prime real estate asset estimated to be worth as much as P110 billion.

With the bulk of government’s prime assets tied up in various legal tangles, President Arroyo has ordered the immediate privatization of the 550-hectare NBP reservation, a prime area that could raise enough funds to reverse the country’s debt crisis.

The Department of Finance and the Department of Justice have been directed to draw up a privatization plan for the property tagged as the biggest government sale since Fort Bonifacio and Camp John Hay.

Finance Undersecretary Eric Recto said that the government’s privatization committee is scheduled to meet this week and the sale of the NBP reservation would be up for discussion to determine how the property would be disposed.

"We don’t really know what to do with it yet but offhand, I think the property should be sold outright," Recto said. "Government should not really be in the business of property development which is better done by the private sector anyway," he added.

Located south of Alabang proper, the sprawling 550-hectare reservation has been earmarked for privatization since the 1980s but no progress has ever been made toward the sale of the property to any developer.

Currently housing over 15,000 inmates, prison employees and their families, the reservation is adjacent to the posh Ayala Alabang Village and has been developed to support the prisons complex, with an existing road network, golf course facilities and schools.

Aside from the maximum, medium and minimum security prison compounds, the reservation also has an elementary and high school as well as the Muntinlupa Polytechnic College owned by the city government.

When it was first lined up for privatization, the NBP reservation had attracted several groups of mostly Japanese investors who wanted to develop the property into a full golf course and recreational facility.

Should it be developed into a golf course facility now, developers said the reservation would be an ideal if not better and more accessible alternative to the golf courses south of Metro Manila, such as Southwoods and Canlubang Estate.

"This is a huge property," Recto remarked. "What we want to do now is to determine what the DOJ had intended to do with it because they own that property."

From there, Recto said the privatization committee could plan how to proceed with the sale of the reservation as well as the preparations for the relocation of the prison and school facilities.

Recto said the property also has to be assessed and valued by independent appraisers to determine how much it would be worth considering the civil works and facilities already in place.

NBP’s prime location, however, is also expected to contribute to its value. Property developers around the area estimated that the government could sell the property anywhere from P22 billion based on the going price in an adjacent third-class subdivision, to as much as P110 billion based on the prevailing price in Ayala Alabang Village.

However, the DOJ had earlier partitioned a 100-hectare portion of the reservation for Katarungan Village, a housing facility for DOJ employees. This portion will most likely be left out of the privatization since they have already been sold out to lot owners.

Aside from getting an appraisal for the property, the DOJ also has to finalize plans to relocate the prisons facility. The DOJ had previously planned to relocate the facility in either Tanay, Rizal or Laur, Nueva Ecija. – Des Ferriols