Court grounds Panlilio takeover of Boracay resort

The Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered Boulevard Holdings Inc. (BHI) and the Fridays Holdings Inc. (FHI), owned by businessman Jose Marcel Panlilio, to hold the takeover of a Boracay resort property in Aklan.

The order was made after the CA took cognizant of a claim by Mila Yap-Sumndad, whose family owns the property, that her signature in the compromise agreement entered into by her estranged husband Daligdig Sumndad with the BHI was forged.

The forged signature was corroborated by the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory at Camp Crame, Quezon City.

In a resolution, the Appellate court enjoined the BHI and the FHI from implementing a writ of execution issued on Feb. 3, 2014 by Judge Rommel Baybay of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 132.

The writ was based on a decision of the Makati court on July 22, 2009 which allowed the sale of Yap-Sumndad’s stake in Friday’s Boracay Beach Resort to BHI, mother company of the FHI.

Yap- Sumndad’s parents, the late spouses Benjamin and Pilar Yap, were the owners of the 2,564-square-meter property in Boracay where Friday’s Boracay Resort is located.

On Dec. 10, 1989, the spouses entered into a 25-year lease contract agreement with the FHI, then owned by Australian businessman William Lutrell, until Feb.14, 2014.

When the spouses died, the property ownership was transferred to their children, including Yap-Sumndad.

Yap-Sumndad said the 25year lease agreement with the BHI lapsed last year, ending the Panlilios hold on the property.

In its recent disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the BHI claimed that it has regained control of the Boracay resort which, Yap-Sumndad said, was illegally undertaken by Aklan Sheriff Melanie Nanit without a break open order.

“BHI no longer has the right to claim ownership of our property,” Yap-Sumndad said.