CA upholds earlier ruling on Piatco's obligations

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco) must pay Japanese builders Takenaka Corp. and Asahikosan Corp. its contractual obligations for the building of the mothballed Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3, the Court of Appeals (CA) has ruled.

In a resolution released yesterday, the CA third division dismissed Piatco’s motion for reconsideration and affirmed its ruling last March upholding the decision of Judge Zenaida Galapate-Laguilles of Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 143 giving the two Japanese firms the go-signal to collect their claims from Piatco based on two judgments of the Queen’s Bench Division in London.

“Defendant-appellant’s motion for reconsideration raises issues which we have already considered and definitively resolved in our decision dated March 13, 2012,” read the CA decision.

“We find nothing substantially new or compellingly persuasive to justify a reversal or even a modification of our ruling.

“The present case of enforcement of the orders of the London court had to do only with the contractual obligations of appellant Piatco under its on-shore construction contract and off-shore procurement contract with appellees (Takenaka and Asahikosan), as well as their enforcement; they could not be affected nor be made dependent as the government’s rights to expropriate the NAIA IPT3 facilities and the correct just compensation for it, are different from the issues presented in the case at bar.”

In the assailed ruling issued last March, the CA had agreed with the Makati RTC that Takenaka and Asahikosan are entitled to collect the amounts of $81.27 million, P116.8 million and P65,000 (or roughly $83 million) from Piatco pursuant to the two judgments they obtained from the High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, Technology and Construction Court in London in 2005.

Piatco was also ordered to pay Takenaka and Asahikosan the amount of P2 million as attorney’s fees and the amount of P77.8 million as litigation expenses.

“True, Piatco’s perceived ‘very low’ valuation that could be finally adjudged in that case, e.g. $175,787,245.10, might severely affect Piatco’s solvency or ability to pay its creditors, including appellees, but such matter is for future insolvency proceedings to tackle, and not in the present case,” read the CA decision.

“Moreover, the value or build quality of the completed facilities are matters of defenses that should have been raised before the London proceedings, not in this case.”

While the structural soundness of the airport should not be tackled in this case, Piatco can still raise such issue in other remedies or actions, the CA said.

The ruling was penned by Associate Justice Rebecca de Guia-Salvador. Associate Justices Normandie Pizarro and Rodil Zalameda concurred.