Phl recovers Nampeidai property in Tokyo

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has recovered the Nampeidai property in Tokyo after years of litigation in Japan, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Philippine Ambassador to Tokyo Manuel Lopez said the Philippine flag now flies over the property acquired through the 1956 Reparations Agreement with Japan.

Back home, the Court of Appeals (CA) has made indefinite an order stopping the government from implementing a contract with Japanese consortium Nagayama Taisei Corp. (NTC) for the development of the property.

The CA’s first division has issued a writ of preliminary injunction enjoining implementation of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court’s ruling for the government to deal directly with Masahiro Nagayama.

“Prudence dictates that the vital issues such as the validity of the cancellation of the Notice of Award dated 13 October 2005, the termination of the SDA and the supplemental agreement dated 14 August 2006 and 13 March 2008, respectively, the existence of the purported consortium, the NTC, among others, ought to be threshed out first,” read the CA ruling.

“It will not be able to perform its bounden duty to thoroughly examine the same, thereby rendering the remedy of appeal practically useless, if appellant GOP (Government of the Philippines), to its prejudice, will be eventually compelled to execute a new SDA on the strength of the assailed writ of execution dated 02 April 2012 in favor of NTC and appellee Nagayama.”

The CA granted the petition of secretaries Cesar Purisima of finance, Alberto del Rosario of foreign affairs, Lopez and Bids and Awards Committee for Nampeidai Property Development Project chairman Carlo Carag.

Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr. wrote the decision and Associate Justices Ramon Bato Jr. and Rodil Zalameda concurred.

The Philippine embassy in Tokyo marked the recovery of the property last June 1 with a simple ceremony entitled “Balik Nampeidai.”

Nampeidai is one of the four properties that the Philippines acquired from Japan under the May 9, 1956 War Reparations Agreement.

It was part of the $550-million war reparation from Japan after World War II.

Filipino community leaders in Tokyo joined the celebrations. – Pia Lee-Brago, Edu Punay