Baguio’s CAP-like crisis

There is a joke going around coffee shops these days.

Caffeine addicts say, if the Arroyo government seriously wants to reduce its fiscal deficit, all it has to do is collect the billions of pesos in due and unpaid debts which the Camp John Hay Development Corp. owes the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.

The joke seems to make sense. Reports say BCDA has collectibles of up to P2.2 billion from the John Hay consortium. Some P1.2 billion is reportedly "due and demandable".

The joke may tickle our coffee-guzzling friends. But the people of Baguio City are not finding it funny. Not at all. Here’s why.

Over a decade ago, the Baguio City Council and the residents of the Summer Capital vehemently opposed a plan by the National Government to transform Camp John Hay into a mountain resort. They had good reasons. Among these were their fear that the last haven for the renowned Baguio pine trees would disappear. And then there was the specter of over-development that Baguio residents knew could rob the then quaint city of its original charm.

But a compromise was struck. The eminent management professor, Victor A. Lim, then chair of BCDA worked out the then famous "19 conditionalities" with the Baguio City Council which led to the eventual acquiescence to the development of Camp John Hay.

Major part of the deal was that Baguio will have a 25-percent share of the net revenues from the rental and operations of the famous resort.

Since the plan had the blessing of the people and leaders of Baguio, BCDA proceeded to bid out the lease-contract for a developer. If memory serves me right, the winner in the bidding was a consortium led by the Manuela group. But the original winner backed out and the lease-contract was awarded to the runner-up: a consortium led by the Fil-Estate group.

Yes, the Fil-Estate group. Right, it’s the same group that cornered the EDSA LRT project at about the same time. One will recall that some 10 years ago, the group was an infrastructure project dynamo. It would be fair to say the group rode on the crest of the country’s bullish economy then.

Part of that consortium is the Penta Capital group, which I believe, is also involved in the proposed MRT 7 project being pushed by the original visionary of EDSA LRT, Mr. Eli Levin.

The third member of the consortium is the College Assurance Plan Philippines, Inc. or CAP for short. Like Fil-Estate, it is owned by the family of real estate tycoon Robert John Sobrepeña.

The consortium became known as the Camp John Hay Development Corp.

The entry of the Fil-Estate-CAP interest into John Hay spurred the Baguio community to dream. With the prospect of 25 percent of the resort’s earnings pouring into the city coffers, the quiet community began to envision new and better infrastructure. New and bigger schools. Maybe a modern hospital. Sports facilities for the youth of Baguio. And maybe a state-of-the-art waterworks that could supply the city with clean potable water year-round.

Close to a decade thereafter, these have remained mostly dreams.

The reason: most of the share of Baguio has apparently remained unremitted. The money that was supposed to have funded the realization of the dreams appear to be lumped with the P1.2 billion that the Sobrepeña-led consortium has reportedly not paid to the government.

If Baguio’s share is indeed 25 percent, then there is a whopping P300 million that should go to its coffers immediately. Baguio has an estimated population of 300,000. That means the Sobrepeña-led group probably owes every Baguio resident P1,000.

That is, if the Sobrepeña-led group decides that it will pay government the due-and-demandable P1.2 billion.

In our country, dreams have a high mortality rate. Observers say it is not likely the Sobrepeña-led group would decide to pay its P1.2-billion debt. There is a whole legal battle looming in the horizon that could eventually consign that amount into the grave of casualties of protracted litigation. If that happens, then many dreams would die. Among them, the dreams of the people of Baguio for something new and better for this mountain haven.

The people of Baguio would not be alone in this fate. Thousands of CAP planholders have earlier experienced the demise of their dreams. The loss of a bright future. The vanishing of hard-earned money that was earmarked for a better tomorrow.

Now, our coffee shop habitué-friends know why we are not laughing at their joke.

For, when dreams die, one does not indulge in levity. One weeps.

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