State-run Home Guarantee Corp. rejected the P5-billion settlement offer of R-II Builders Corp. on the controversial Smokey Mountain Development and Reclamation Project.
HGC officer-in-charge Cora Corpuz said over the weekend the agency found the compromise offer of R-II Builders “low and unacceptable.”
“The P5-billion [offer] is definitely low and is not acceptable,” Corpuz said.
R-II Builders chairman Reghis Romero II offered on July last year to reimburse HGC’s exposure to the reclamation project.
Some members of the House subcommittee on housing in a hearing last week urged HGC to accept the comprise agreement between the government and R-II Builders, the private contractor of the Smokey Mountain reclamation prpoject.
HGC lawyer Dexter Licuanan earlier stressed the need to settle the two-decade dispute and urged Romero’s group to make a fair offer. Licuanan was vocal in rejecting the offer of R-II Builders during the House hearing.
Corpuz said HGC was open to a settlement “as long as this will be for the best interest of HGC and the government.”
Former HGC president Manuel Sanchez earlier said the property was worth P9.5 billion, or way above Romero’s offer to settle the dispute between the two companies.
“Romero also wants mutual withdrawal of cases. If we do that, the claims of the government will be lost forever. We have to make sure that the settlement would be fair and proper,” Sanchez said.
R-II Builders and the National Housing Authority formed a joint venture to develop Smokey Mountain. R-II Builders agreed to finance all aspects of development—including the construction of 2,992 temporary housing and 3,520 units of medium-rise housing and the development of an industrial and commercial site within Smokey Mountain area.
The government and R-II Builders later had disagreements after Romero’s company failed to finance the Smokey Mountain project.
Sanchez earlier said the government was also losing billions in Harbour Centre Port Holdings Inc., after Romero failed to recognize the 32 percent stake of the government in HCPI.
“The government has been shortchanged millions and millions of pesos every year because Mr. Reghis Romero doesn’t want to recognize our remaining 32 percent share in HCPHI,” Sanchez said.
“All these years he is acting and benefiting as a full owner of HCPHI. We don’t have any seat in the board although we own 32 percent of the company. They don’t give us a copy of the records. So, we don’t know how much they are making a year and how much we are entitled every year,” Sanchez said.
HGC is a government-owned-and-controlled-corporation mandated by law to promote sustainable home ownership by providing risk coverage or guarantees.
