“IT’S NOT OVER TILL IT’S OVER”

DAGUPAN Mayor Belen Fernandez vowed to continue to fight for the recovery of MC Adore from the company that bought the property in early 2013 for P119 million following an alleged illegal process and irregular public bidding.

“Yes, we will fight it out in court, if we must,” she said in her State of the City Address (SOCA) delivered during a special session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) at CSI Stadia.

Fernandez stressed that MC Adore “is not owned by the mayor, nor the vice mayor or the councilors but by the people of Dagupan who paid their taxes”.

MC Adore was bought in 2002 by Dagupan government from the Assets Privatization Trust for P50 million under former Mayor Benjamin Lim purportedly to be converted as city hall.
The plan for a new city hall never took off and when Lim returned as mayor from 2010-2013, he decided to sell the property in a controversial procedure that was questioned and now remains pending in court.

Fernandez faulted the past city administration for rushing to have the property bided out with a starting price much lower that market rates.

Maintaining her previous position since she was the city vice mayor, she said that the MC Adore should have been sold for at least P300 million.

EVACUATION CENTER

Fernandez further said that her resolve to recover the MC Adore was also firmed by her plan to make the building a vertical evacuation center for the city.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of Dagupan has since made it known that the city faces risk of a 7-ft tsunami in the event the Manila Trench 100 kilometers west of Bolinao moves that could result in 8.0 magnitude earthquake.

“This realization had firmed up my resolve to capture the MC Adore Hotel for the city not only because it was undervalued, but because we need it as a Vertical Evacuation Center in case of a tsunami requiring a 14-minute response time. At its present height of seven stories, it can accommodate and save 10,000 people in case of tsunami or storm surge,” she told The PUNCH.

UNDERPRICED

Arguing her case before the people of Dagupan, Fernandez said MC Adore was sold at P5,000 per square meter when in fact Lim sold his property in the same area on A.B. Fernandez Avenue to Land Bank of the Philippines for P32,000 per square meter.

“As per advise by expert, the land alone could fetch a good price of no less than P33,000 per square meter. At  5,113 square meters, the land could easily fetch P168 million. The five-storey building measuring 14,100 square meters at P 10,000 per square meter would also fetch another P141 million,” she said.

The sale of MC Adore building, the mayor said, was grossly understated and “grossly disadvantageous to the city”.

DUE PROCESS

“If only the proper bidding process was followed diligently we could have gotten a better price from duly accredited competent bidders,” she asserted.

She said the city will continue to stand by the findings of the court, the opinion of the Department of Interior and Local Government, as well as the decision of Branch 40 of the Regional Trial Court that it (sale) was “void from the very beginning”.

In her speech, Fernandez admitted that Antonio Cabangon Chua of AMB ALC Holdings, the company that bought the property, met with her at least seven times with several intermediaries, among them a senator, asking her to simply let go of the property.

She said that at one time, she told Chua that the city will just return the P119 million paid by his company, but the latter allegedly responded that he was amenable but he already “spent more than that”.

Fernandez said she has asserted to the AMB ALC chair that if his company would like to keep MC Adore, he must pay the people of Dagupan the right amount for the property.

“Alam ninyo, maraming beses na gusto nilang ayusin. Gusto ko na rin.  Okay lang sa akin yon. Bayaran lang yong tama“, Fernandez said.

Fernandez did not “fault” councilors who signed the resolution which paved the way for the sale saying it “what was wrong was the process”.

COVER-UP FOR DEFICITS

The mayor confirmed that the hasty sale and receipt of the proceeds of the sale was also used to cover the growing budgetary deficit of the Lim administration that effectively made the city government cash-strapped during the first year of her term.

“Clearly obvious was the fact that the 2012 obligations – electricity and water bills foremost and dubious payroll expenses, which remained unpaid – would have consumed the entire proceeds of MC Adore if these had not been charged to the 2013 budget,” she added.

She recalled that in early 2013, the Lim administration submitted a supplemental budget appropriating P30 million from the P119 million proceeds from the sale of MC Adore to pay for the salaries of employees.

The request was blocked by the council then presided by Fernandez who was then vice mayor and presiding officer of the council.

AWAI LAND

At the same time, Fernandez also pledged to fight for the recovery of the money paid for the overvalued Awai Property in San Jacinto bought at P16 million, supposedly for the city’s sanitary landfill.

The city never received the title to the land from owner Mariano Cuña.

The land has been placed under coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. (LVM)

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