A MEMBER of the independent minority bloc in the House of Representatives has assailed the president of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) for “mishandling” the development of Camp John Hay.
In a privilege speech, Party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz of Abakada Guro said “the questionable actions of BCDA President Arnel Casanova had a deleterious effect on the Armed Forces Modernization Program, which get 50 percent of BCDA’s lease revenues under existing laws.”
Dela Cruz said the Camp John Hay development project, under the government’s Private-Public Partnership (PPP) Program, has “gone haywire, resulting from the misguided, misplaced and high-handed management style of the current BCDA leadership.”
“Indeed, the much heralded PPP Program, the Armed Forces Modernization Program and the enhanced support program for our military personnel and their families and, of course, the city of Baguio have now been orphaned as a result of the decision of the arbitral court to turn over the facility to the BCDA—a reverse privatization of sorts—and the payment of dues and obligations to the tune of P1.4 billion by the BCDA to its erstwhile partner, the Camp John Hay Development Corp. headed by its chairman, Robert John Sobrepeña.”
The Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. earlier ordered the BCDA to return P1.42 billion in rentals paid by the developer of Camp John Hay for the rescission of its 1996 original lease agreement for the property in Baguio City.