Gibo to Palace: Stop 'fire sale' of P30-billion state assets

MANILA, Philippines - Administration presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro urged the Arroyo administration yesterday to halt what he called was the “fire sale” of some P30 billion worth of state assets to help stem the widening deficit.

Teodoro, standard-bearer of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD, was referring to the proposed sale of the Philippine National Oil Corp. (PNOC), Food Terminal, Inc. (FTI) and Fujimi property, from which the government expects to generate P30 billion in revenues.

He stressed the sale of the three government properties should be left at the discretion of the next elected administration to avoid controversy.

“I am not familiar with the assets, but for me, prudence is the order of the day, be prudent and exercise utmost conservative judgment,” Teodoro said.

The government has tried a number of times to auction off all three — the last time at the end of last year — but failed due to poor market conditions and lack of investor interest which contributed to a record P298.5 billion deficit.

While the privatization may be legal and helpful to the country, Teodoro said it “does not make it a wise move” due to the expected controversies that could be generated from the transactions.

“The decision (on the sale of government assets) should be left to the next administration, so I counsel prudence, especially in the last remaining months (of this administration),” Teodoro said.

Reports said that the government also wants to sell the PNOC-EC’s 10 percent interest in the Malampaya natural gas project first before its 60 percent stake in the oil, gas and exploration firm.

The government is expecting a P14-billion profit from the sale of the PNOC-EC, including the company’s 10 percent interest in Malampaya; P10 billion from the 103-hectare FTI property; and P3 billion from the lease of the Fujimi property.