Court urged: Release P700-M assets in padlocked mall

MANILA, Philippines - A businessman asked the Parañaque regional trial court (RTC) to order a municipal trial court  (MTC) and its sheriff to immediately release P700 million worth of stock certificates and merchandise allegedly illegally seized during last year’s closure of Uniwide’s Coastal Mall Plaza.

Lawyer Salvador Hababag, president of New Global Bargain Inc., filed a petition urging the Parañaque RTC Branch 274 to order MTC Branch 78 Judge Ramsay Pichay, court sheriff Hildo Epres and officers of the Manila Bay Development Corp. to pay his firm P50 million in damages for the alleged illegal seizure of the company’s assets when Pichay ordered the mall padlocked on Oct. 29, 2014.

New Global had been leasing space at the mall.     

In his amended petition, Hababag also told the court that the respondents – including MBDC chairman Jacinto Ng Sr. and president George Chua – should be held liable for theft, robbery or estafa for withholding his firm’s property.

The MBDC owns the land being leased by Uniwide Holdings Inc. since 1996 for its mall.

In a separate civil case, Uniwide chairman Jimmy Gow said Epres “prematurely, irregularly and unlawfully” conducted a “simulated and fraudulent” auction of Uniwide’s padlocked property on April 21, disregarding the Nov. 5, 2014 stay order issued by Parañaque RTC Branch 257 Judge Rolando How.

The mall was auctioned off by the MTC 78 sheriff last April in favor of MBDC, despite the previous ruling by RTC Branch 257 that even in case the dispute is finally settled in MBDC’s favor, that Uniwide and its tenants be given three months to remove their merchandise and vacate the premises.

Gow said the mall’s closure led to the mass layoff of some 2,000 mall employees ahead of last year’s Christmas season. Hababag, in another complaint, said among the items sold during the auction are his firm’s stock certificates and merchandise.