Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama wants Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) to already pay about P800 million in joint venture shares from the proceeds of their ongoing developments at the South Road Properties (SRP).
Rama said he didn’t want to threaten the property development giant, “but they should know that they should already pay.”
ACCOUNTABILITY
“Filinvest knows very well that the accountability was set on March 15,” the mayor said during his press conference yesterday.
In a press statement sent to the media late last night, a Filinvest executive said they are ready to pay.
Tristan Las Marias, FLI vice president for the Visayas and Mindanao said a check payment of P967.68 million is now ready for release to the Cebu City government.
“This check represents payment for final installment of pond F and the balance to satisfy the guarantee amount for the city’s joint venture share for the first 10 hectares of phase 1 of the 40 hectare portion of the joint venture development,” Las Marias said.
Acting City treasurer Diwa Cuevas wrote Las Marias on March 10 demanding payment of P803 million which represents the balance of the city’s guaranteed minimum return share in the profit sharing provided for in the joint venture to develop 40 hectares of land at the SRP.
OBLIGATION
The guarantee payment was already due on March 15. FLI owed the city the P1.053 billion guarantee share. But they already made an initial payment of P250 million leaving a balance of P803 million.
“We look forward to the satisfaction and compliance of your obligation hereof,” Cuevas’ letter stated.
Rama said he will leave it up to Cuevas and City Administrator Lucelle Mercado to follow up on the city’s money claims.
Las Marias said Filinvest has already paid P309. 71 million to City Hall and will be paying more in the coming days.
“Filinvest engaged AGV Auditing Firm, as our third party auditor, to review the accounting records released to the joint venture agreement. The report will be submitted to the city government for their use,” Las Marias added.