CLARK FREEPORT – The Court of Appeals has issued a writ of preliminary injunction against a contractor for the 177-hectare Global Gateway Logistics City (Logistics City) here, paving the way for the completion of the $40-million The Medical City (TMC) building in time for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) opening to be held in this freeport in January.
The CA verdict has enabled the Kuwaiti firm Global Gateway Development Corp. (GGDC), which owns Logistics City, to speed up the finishing touches at the TMC building whose construction was stopped after contractor Peregrine Development International, Inc. (Peregrine) barred GGDC contractors within the area.
GGDC President Mark Williams said the decision of the CA would help the company to complete works on the worldclass TMC hospital project by this December. He said the hospital project will provide world-class health services for thousands of Filipinos in Central and Northern Luzon.
“With the legal stumbling blocks out of the way, GGDC plans to also start the construction of five buildings adjacent to the TMC with about 10 to 12 floors each,” Williams said. GGDC is investing another $100 million for the five buildings, he added.
GGDC fired Peregrine as its constructor last July, but Peregrine insisted this move was irregular as it allegedly violated a six-month notification provision in their contract, among other reasons. The conflict prompted both parties to file before local courts charges against each other.
In a nine-page resolution last week, however, the Court of Appeals’ Eighth Division ruled against Peregrine which has employed security guards to prevent other contractors hired by GGDC to work within Logistics City. The resolution said “this court resolved to grant the prayer of petitioner (GGDC) for the issuance of writ of preliminary injunction after it has been satisfactorily shown that the legal requirements for the issuance of preliminary injunction are present in this case.”
The CA also issued a writ of preliminary injunction stopping Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 58 Presiding Judge Omar T. Viola from issuing further decisions on the case. Viola earlier ruled in favor of Peregrine, despite the ongoing arbitration case between the two companies in Singapore.
The CA enjoined Viola and Peregrine against implementing the RTC decisions issued last June 13 and 27, as well as its June 30 writ of preliminary injunction that all favored Peregrine. The CA ordered Viola to refrain from “conducting further proceedings in said case as well as in the related case of petition for indirect contempt… pending the final resolution of this petition or until writ is sooner lifted by the court.”
Earlier, the CA had already ruled in favor of GGDC’s full takeover of the Logistics City, a master-planned “aerotropolis” in this freeport. GGDC said it has already invested some $100 million for various horizontal and vertical infrastructure within the Logistics City, including the TMC building costing $40 million.
The hospital building would be leased by TMC amid plans to operate it in time for the APEC summit to be hosted here from January to February. The GGLC said that once finished, the Logistics City would create 300,000 jobs, over 5.8 million square meters of floor space and an annual payroll of $600 million.
Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) earlier affirmed CIAC’s commitment to the terms of lease agreement with GGDC whose lease contract over the 177-hectare Logistics City covers 50 years.
