THE Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is going ahead with the sale of a portion of Manila North Harbor, which is operated by the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), despite earlier reports that the port operator claims the state-run pension fund has no authority to do so.
In a statement yesterday, GSIS said it is “bent on selling” the 672,645-square meter property at the harbor, which threatens to disrupt ICTSI’s container port operations at the site.
“As a government entity that exists to ensure the integrity of the funds of its members, GSIS is determined to sell it through public bidding upon the approval of the Board,” GSIS President and General Manager Jesus Clint O. Arañas said in the statement.
The land is estimated to be worth about P33.632 billion, based on the zonal valuation as of May 9.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange earlier this month, ICTSI said the dispute dates back almost two decades ago, when GSIS lost an ejectment suit at the Metropolitan Trial Court, Regional Trial Court and Court of Appeals even though GSIS “only has bare title to the port land.”
Referring to this statement, Mr. Arañas said Wednesday the claims of ICTSI “does not preclude GSIS from disposing of the property.”
Aside from the property at the Manila North Harbor, GSIS is also trying to assert its ownership over a 1.2-hectare site that was included in the five-hectare resettlement site the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is donating to the National Housing Authority (NHA), the City of Manila, ICTSI, and Manila North Harbor Port, Inc.
“[T]he ocular inspection report of NHA reveals that the proposed relocation site infringes on another GSIS property occupied by informal settlers and allocated for socialized housing… with an area of 1.2 hectares which belongs to GSIS,” it said.
It said it wants the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the PPA’s donation to be “rescinded, modified, or revised to exclude the overlapping portion of GSIS-owned property,” noting it “was never consulted and neither did it approve or consent to such donation….”
GSIS said it tried to communicate with the PPA and ICTSI over the land dispute, but instead found the legality of its title questioned.
“…GSIS has invited ICTSI to discuss the use and rental of the disputed property. But ICTSI referred GSIS’s letter to PPA and deemed that ‘it may not be useful to sit down with GSIS without the participation of PPA,’” it said.
ICTSI said in an e-mail Wednesday it “(doesn’t) have a comment at this time.”
PPA was also asked for comment but had not replied at deadline time. — Denise A. Valdez
