Cyber Bay shareholders hail GMA probe order

Cyber Bay shareholders’ spokesperson Carol Sy welcomed yesterday the pronouncement of President Arroyo to go after those government officials who had something to do with the controversial PEA-Amari land deal. Sy however said that there should be no exclusion.

Sy said that then Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Antonio Carpio should have known at that time that the deal was flawed.

Carpio was the lone author of the recent Supreme Court decision, which scrapped the PEA-Amari land deal. Other justices who concurred with him only affixed their signatures on his decision.

Aside from Cyber Bay, 10 other contracts were approved during that time.

Sy expressed fears that the decision may lead to the collapse of the financial market stemming from the shut down of these 10 other major reclamation projects in the country. The 10 other developers which have similar land agreement with PEA are: DM Wenceslao & Jan de Nul Consortium, Shoemart, Inc., Royal Asia, TOA Corp., FF Cruz, Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. and Construction Development Corp. to bankruptcy.

"We are not talking of mince meat here; we are looking at billions of pesos across these 10 PEA-led land agreement. In fact, the decision not only sends a negative message to all foreign investors that the Philippine government could not be relied on to make good its word on such contracts. This smacks of a dangerous precedent." Sy cautioned that in at least 10 reclamation projects with PEA, foreign capital stood at millions of dollars. "Losses would run into billions of pesos."

In the case of Cyber Bay consortium and team of experts, among the foreign companies it tapped into are Italian Development Co. Ltd., Centasia Group Ltd., HOK International, McDonough Assoc. Inc. Wilbur Smith & Associates, Robert Trent Jones II. All these foreign companies will seek payment for services already rendered. "There is no way to recover the investment that was put into these reclamation projects," she said.

The SC ruling would automatically invalidate all the titles issued to private corporations. "By virtue of the titles being illegal, the sale or the act of mortgaging such to financial institution will also constitute an illegal act," she said.

In the joint venture agreement between Shoemart, Inc. and PEA, the former was granted land titles for 49.45 has or a 35-percent share of the gross area. For R-1 Expressway project, DM Wenceslao and consortium stands to lose its land titles amounting to 112 has or 55 percent of the gross area.

Cyber Bay, since the awarding of the contract by PEA, has complete site clearing, urban poor relocation, dredging and reclamation. The amended deal entails Cyber Bay giving PEA P1.8 billion for the reclamation of three Freedom Islands.