Asian integrated resort developer and operator Landing International Development Ltd says it is “waiting for further clarification” on the future of its planned Manila integrated resort after the office of the Philippines President revealed over the weekend that the Department of Justice had ruled the company’s local land deal void.
Harry Roque, the spokesman for the President, told local reporters on Friday that Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra had deemed Landing’s contract to lease a 95,700-square meter plot of land in Manila’s Entertainment City from Nayong Pilipino Foundation as invalid.
“It characterized the contract as being ‘void ab initio’,” Roque said. “According to the Secretary of Justice, the contract of Landing with Nayong Pilipino is a build-operate-transfer contract disguised as a lease contract. Because it is a build-operate-transfer project, it should have complied with the BOT law including public bidding.”
Approached by Inside Asian Gaming, a Landing International spokesperson said that the company had no comment at this stage while it sought further clarification on the issue.
It follows President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to fire the entire board of Nayong Pilipino Foundation in early August, announcing their fate on the very same day that Landing held its groundbreaking ceremony for the US$1.5 billion project.
Landing said at the time that it believed its 50-year lease deal to be “still valid and effective” and that it planned to push ahead with the project.
“From the group’s view point, the recent decision of the Philippine Government to replace members of the NPF board of trustees did not affect the validity of the subject contract of lease,” the company added.
Nayong Pilipino Foundation is accused of failing to open the land parcel up for public bidding and of granting Landing International a deal that was “grossly disadvantageous” to the government. The sacked Chairman of Nayong Pilipino Foundation, Patricia Ocampo, has denied there was any legal requirement for public bidding while insisting the lease rate was in line or higher than other land parcels in the Entertainment City precinct.
Ocampo has been in the spotlight ever since the 7 August groundbreaking ceremony where she gave a welcome speech to guests despite having just been told of her fate, then broke down in tears moments later.
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