Lawyer Marino Martinquilla shows the P25 million showroom which a real estate company built at a province-owned lot located at the Cebu IT Park for a P50 per square meter lease. /Rosalie Abatayo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu provincial government has terminated its lease contract with a real estate developer citing “alleged anomalies” in the transaction which they inked in 2014 with former governor and now Vice Government Hilario Davide III.
Lawyer Marino Martinquilla, Capitol legal management consultant, said that the lease contract failed to comply with the procurement process mandated by law.
Martinquilla said that Governor Gwendolyn Garcia’s legal team is also preparing appropriate criminal and administrative complaints against Davide and other government officials who were involved in the deal.
Davide told CDN Digital that he will issue his comment as soon he receives a copy of the complaint.
CDN Digital is also withholding the name of the real estate developer pending release of their official statement.
Martinquilla said that developer is paying a lease of P50 per square meter for the 849 square meter lot located at the Cebu IT Park which they are leasing from the provincial government. The lease contract was signed on April 2014 and is valid for a period of six years or until April 2020.
“It seems nga ubos kaayo ang presyo. It is because, when we looked into the documents, wala moagi og procurement process. Wala moagi og bidding to determine the lessee. Gi-inato ang proseso,” Martinquilla said in a press conference on Wednesday, July 31.
(It seems that the property was leased at a very cheap cost. When we reviewed the documents, we found out that the procurement process was not followed in the approval of the lease contract. The transaction did not undergo the required bidding process. They shortened the process.)
Martinquilla said that Davide also failed to secure the authority of the Sanguniang Panlalawigan before he signed the lease contract on behalf of the provincial government.
A certification signed by SP Secretary Pulchra Marie Acevedo affirmed Martinquilla’s claim. Acevedo certified that the SP did not also ratify the lease contract.
On July 18, Garcia sent a letter to the real estate developer informing them of the termination of the lease contract.
Martinquilla said that real estate developer offered to renegotiate with the provincial government. But the governor is “not open for any negotiation.”
On July 29, the Provincial Legal Office (PLO) asked the real estate company to already vacate the Capitol-owned property within a period of seven days.
At present, the company that leased the provincial lot has built a P25-million showroom in the area. /dcb