CityMall urged to stop dev’t of N. Bacalso Ave. property

Latest CA ruling urges David Lu case be remanded to special court

Some former stockholders of the dissolved Ludo and Luym Development Corp. (LudoDev) are reiterating their call to CityMall Commercial Centers Inc. to desist from pursuing the development of the 1.1 hectare property along N. Bacalso Avenue pending court litigation.

The former stockholders made the call after the Court of Appeals in a Dec. 16, 2014 decision ordered the case filed by David Lu in 2000 to be remanded to the Special Court.

The 2000 case involved Lu asking the court to dissolve LudoDev, its properties liquidated, and have an appointed  management committee.

The CA ruled that the case be remanded to the RTC Branch 11 or the Commercial Court saying that there was no proper hearing conducted back in 2000 for the RTC to make the decision in March 2004 to dissolve  LudoDev.

Kelly LuYm’s party, one of the stockholders of the dissolved LudoDev, represented by Lawyer Negley Tabucanon-Villanueva, said with the recent CA decision, the transfer of the property along N. Bacalso Avenue to Dunes and Eagle Land Development Corp. by David Lu and Douglas LuYm is illegal.

“The recent decision by CA in effect means that we all go back from the start. That also means transfer of any of the properties while this case is ongoing is illegal,” said Villanueva.

MOTION
Villanueva added that they have also filed a motion for reconsideration in Jan. 27, 2015 to the CA for the court to make a decision on the case that they filed on September 2013 seeking to nullify the transfer of the 1.1 hectare property along N. Bacalso Avenue to Dunes and Eagle Land Development Corp., which entered into a 30-year lease agreement with CityMall Commercial Centers, Inc. last year.

CityMall Commercial Centers, Inc. is owned by DoubleDragon Properties Corp and SM Investments Corp.

Based on a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the property will be developed into a mall called Grand CityMall which is supposedly targeted to be completed this year.

Villanueva said that they have already written a letter to DoubleDragon Properties Corp. and also tried calling them.

“We did not get any reply from them,” Villanueva said.

They have also checked on reports that construction is already ongoing in the property.

“We checked with OBO (Office of the Building Official) last week and were told that there was no application for construction works for that specific area. We checked on the site and there were heavy equipment already in place and the area already fenced,” she said.

Kelly LuYm’s lawer said after 14 years of battling this issue in court, they are still willing to settle with the other parties.

“We have tried so many times before. We have been initiating settlement and had many people help us for mediation, but they are still not willing to talk. We are still willing to settle,” she said.

PROPERTIES
The N. Bacalso Avenue property is one of the 21 properties of LudoDev which is currently under “custodia legis” which means any transfer should have prior approval from the court which was violated when the property was transfered to Dunes and Eagle Land Development Corp., she said.

LudoDev has a total of 21 properties in Cebu, Manila and Iligan valued over P2 billion as of 2004 appraisal.

According to Villanueva, of the 21 properties, 10 of them which make up 42.62 percent of the total assets, were already illegally transferred to David Lu and Douglas LuYm in 2012.