Filinvest pays P224M to Cebu City for SRP lot

Filinvest Land Inc. yesterday handed over a P224 million check to the Cebu City government.
The amount represents payment of amortization for the acquisition of a 10-hectare lot area at the South Road Properties (SRP) which they bought in 2009.

Mayor Michael Rama said the payment of the city’s share from the development of 10-hectares of the 40-hectare lot under a joint venture agreement with FLI will follow soon.

“We are threshing out the other amount…. but I hope that they will be quick enough to do that,” Rama said during his noon time press conference.

Tristan las Marias, Filinvest first vice president for Visayas and Mindanao was at City Hall yesterday afternoon to turn over the check to the City Treasurer’s Office.

Rama admitted that his and the city’s relations with Filinvest was “strained” because of delays in the release of their check payments to the city.

Guarantee fee

Las Marias earlier said they prepared a check of P900 million payable to the city government.

He said they had to reconcile the records of Filinvest and the city government before the city’s guarantee fee claims could be paid.

“Filinvest is on time in its payments to the Cebu City government. In fact, last Dec. 20, 2013, the Cebu City government and Filinvest issued a joint statement which appeared in the Cebu papers confirming that FLI was on time in its SRP payments to the city,” he said.

Las Marias said Filinvest paid part of the minimum guarantee payment last December.

FLI said they hired the services of SGV & Co, as an independent auditor to review the accounting records related to the joint venture agreement.

“We started discussions with the city as early as February in order to finalize their requested payments and we are currently in the process of documenting the closure of the first development phase of the SRP,” Las Marias said.

Las Marias said proper documentation of all transactions related to the SRP joint venture is important.