CLARK FREEPORT – President Aquino has reportedly instructed the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) to withhold the full granting of rights to the Kuwaiti investor Global Gateway Development Corp. (GGDC) over 177 hectares of land it already has invested some $70 million in the past six years.
This surfaced during a House transportation committee hearing held here recently after GGDC President-CEO Mark Williams raised the issue over the reluctance of the BCDA to “annotate” the firm’s lease for processing by the Register of Deeds.
House committee chair Rep. Cesar Sarmiento noted confirmation from the BCDA that while Executive Sec. Paquito Ochoa had given the BCDA the go signal for the annotation, the President reportedly later gave “verbal instructions” to BCDA President Arnel Casanova to hold the move.
Williams said the BCDA’s annotation for Register of Deeds processing was needed to “firm up” his company’s leasehold rights over the 177-hectare land known as Global Gateway Logistics City or Logistics City. He said that the area used to have claimants before despite their being covered by this freeport.
Sarmiento told Williams his committee, which tackled plans for the Clark International Airport here, would clarify the issue with Ochoa and top officials of the BCDA.
Peregrine
The GGDC is now in court battle with PeregrineDevelopment International, Inc. (Peregrine) whom it recently fired as sole contractor for all vertical and horizontal projects, including the still unfinished $40 million Medical City, within the Logistics City, Peregrine said GGDC violated their 50-year “engineering, procurement, construction, and management services agreement (EPCM)” by terminating this abruptly last June and withdrawing all $1.6 million from their working capital funds.
Peregrine has refused to vacate the Logistics City and barred any contractor of GGDC from entering the 177-hectare area, pending the resolution of pending cases both parties had filed before local courts and the Court of Appeals.
KGL Group
No one during the House committee hearing knew why the President withheld the annotation of the lease document of GGDC, but Peregrine distributed to media news clippings from Kuwait and copies of official documents from the US implicating the Kuwaiti KGL Group in questioned involvements in its businesses abroad.
One document dated June 21, 2011 was from US Sen. Mark Kirk asking the US Department of Treasury to investigate KGL group, which owns GGDC here, for possible violation of a law, saying “KGL may have financial relationships with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, Hafiz Darya Shipping, Oasis and Valfajr- entities banned by your office for illegal business conducted for Iran.”
