FLI pays P245.2M to city

CEBU, Philippines - The Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) finally paid its obligation amounting to P245.2 million to the Cebu City Government.

Cebu City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva revealed FLI turned over the payment to the Mayor’s Office Tuesday last week.

The payment was made after a series of meetings and negotiations with FLI, which earlier withheld its 2012 payments for the South Road Properties (SRP) lots it purchased from the Cebu City Government because of encumbrances on the titles.

The titles of the lots have been reportedly annotated “lis pendens”, which means there is pending litigation involving the properties, as an offshoot of the court battle between the City government and the Rallos heirs.

Oliva said FLI only paid the exact amount as she did not charge interest.

Next week, Oliva will send examiners to FLI office, to check their books in order to determine the amount that the city government can expect as Joint Venture Agreement share.

In an earlier statement, FLI told the City Treasurer’s Office to review their sales and collection records to settle how much the city can collect as share in the JVA.

FLI said that the P600-million JVA share that the city is demanding has no basis.

Oliva said as soon as they have the amount the city will start collecting.

The CTO earlier sent four demand letters to FLI after the latter refused to pay last March.

The treasurer’s office demanded the payment of P858 million - P245.2 represents the fourth payment for the lots, P600 million  for the JVA share and the rest represents the interest for late payment.

FLI earlier said they cannot be compelled to pay as Section 31 of the JVA provides that Filinvest may defer any payment in the event that there is an ongoing litigation on the subject titles and properties under the joint venture.

But yesterday, the Court of Appeals granted the city’s petition for preliminary injunction which now prohibits the garnishment and levying the city government properties. —(FREEMAN)