CoA flags Cavite industrial estate developer for failing to move on with abolition
THE COMMISSION on Audit (CoA) flagged a Cavite industrial estate developer for failing to make progress on its abolition after a directive from the Office of the President last year, racking up expenses worth P28.64 million.
In its 2022 report dated March 23, state auditors said the closure of First Cavite Industrial Estate, Inc. (FCIEI) “has not been started,” resulting in the “non-liquidation of assets, non-settlement of liabilities, and continued incurrence of expenses accumulating to P28.64 million.”
The FCIEI was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1990 and began as a joint venture project of the National Development Company (NDC), Marubeni Corp., and Japan International Development Organization Ltf., a corporation established by KEIDANREN (Japan Business Federation).
It was formed to develop the NDC’s property in Dasmariñas, Cavite in southern Luzon into an industrial estate and economic zone. It was able to sell all its designated lots to locators in 1995 but the complex was not completed.
The FCIEI was ordered for abolition on June 23, 2022 through Memorandum Order No. 62 of the Office of the President.
“Given that the intention of the FCIEI to undertake another development project did not materialize, the abolition of the company was recommended, and was approved in principle in 2015, with the condition that the FCIEI’s liabilities, particularly to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) are settled,” the memorandum order is quoted in the audit report.
CoA recommended that the FCIEI coordinate with the technical working group (TWG) created under the memorandum order “to fast track and immediately start with the legal processes covered by the abolition of a government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC).”
The TWG is composed of representatives from the NDC, PEZA, and the Governance Commission for GOCCs.
FCIEI had assets worth P7.33 million in 2022, and unsettled notices of disallowances amounting to P220,933. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
