House U-turns, allows Paskuhan sale to SM Group
The House has reversed course on the sale of Paskuhan Village to the SM Group, with the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability now recalling its previous adverse findings on the 2015 bidding.
The House move effectively undercut a civil case filed by the San Fernando city government seeking to nullify the privatization of the 9.3-hectare property at the intersection of the North Luzon Expressway opposite SM City Pampanga. Last week, the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, chaired by Camiguin Rep. Xavier Jesus Romualdo, agreed to set aside its previous report that became the basis for the Office of the Solicitor General to join the San Fernando city government in seeking to revoke the 2015 sale.
The U-turn came after Senior Deputy Majority Leader Rodante Marcoleta told the committee that the Paskuhan Village has not been declared by the national government as a cultural and historical site, a declaration that would have allowed the San Fernando city government to exercise its right of first refusal to the sale.
In addition, the SM Group was “a buyer in good faith having offered a price (nearly P940 million) more than the property’s book value” during a bidding held by the Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority, Marcoleta told the committee.
Using the original House committee report as basis, Assistant Solicitor General Joseph Guevarra, San Fernando Mayor Edwin Santiago, city legal officer Atlee Viray and Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. last year filed a civil complaint in Regional Trial Court, not only to nullify the sale, but also to inscribe several adverse notations on the property title.
It was also Gonzales who had sought a House investigation that eventually led to the House good government committee to issue the now recalled committee report.
The Paskuhan Village is the lone remaining empty property by that busy intersection, with the two other corner properties now occupied by Robinsons Starmills and CW Home Depot.
The third corner is occupied by SM City Pampanga, a regional supermall with a total land area of 31.6 hectares.
SM Group heiress Teresita Sy flew to Paris to support her London-based daughter, painter Nicole Coson, as she opened Thursday her solo show in the French capital.
Nicole has also been commissioned by the Philippine Stock Exchange to paint 12 panels to adorn the unified trading floor in The Fort.
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