CLARK FREEPORT – The Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) is now “actively mediating” in the impasse between the Kuwaiti investor and the American developer of the 177-hectare Global Gateways Logistics City (GGLC) here brought about by the withdrawal of funds of the former denying access to the latter.
Victor Jose “Chichos” I. Luciano, CIAC president and CEO, said yesterday that a resolution is now in the horizon.
“We are actively mediating and expecting a resolution soon. The good thing is that both parties are one in affirming the full development of GGLC to generate jobs and make Clark a logistics hub in Asia,” Luciano said.
He added that, “GGLC is a live and active logistics project in the Clark Civil Aviation Complex. Its first landmark is the Medical City which is nearing completion.” Luciano also said: “To date some $100 million have been invested there in terms of land development and underground state-of-the art utility and optic fiber communication facilities and the widest roads found nowhere else in the country.”
Earlier, the Kuwaiti investor known as the KGL group pulled out its finances from the access of its developer, rendering hundreds jobless and current projects, including the Medical City, uncertain.
What went earlier Jeff Stewart Pradhan, vice president for sales and marketing of project developer Peregrine Development International, Inc. (Peregrine), said an initial 180 employees were laid off last Wednesday because of lack of funds for their salaries.
This, after the KGL Group, a firm owned by a Kuwaiti family and operates here through the Global Gateway Global Corp. (GGGC), withdrew its funds from a working capital account (WCA) from which Peregrine draws funds for its operations.
Pradhan noted that the KGL Group was supposed to complete the roads, drainages, power and water utility infrastructure in three years, on top of buildings, but it has failed to do this. Dakila Maniquis, Peregrine chief investment officer, said the logistics city project has remained “idle for the past six years because of inadequate funding by the Kuwaiti investors.”
He noted that KGL had promised to create at least 200,000 jobs, but that this hasn’t materialized either. Maniquis said the KGL Group has claimed that it has sold 51 percent of the logistics city project to another party which it has refused to identify. “The urgent concern now is the employment of the initial 180 out of 269 workers.
With the funds withdrawn by the Kuwaiti group, it is likely that other workers will have to go in three months,” he lamented. Maniquis stressed, however, that the Kuwaiti Group “is not leaving Clark. “Apparently, it just wants Peregrine out of the project.”
Meanwhile, Peregrine has brought the issue before Clark Develoment Corp. President and CEO Arthur Tugade who said he would not intervene as the case was between two private parties. Tugade left for South Korea yesterday.
Maniquis said the issue remains pending for arbitration in Singapore, even as the KGL Group has appealed to the Court of Appeals to stop the Angeles City Regional Trial Court from enforcing its temporary restraining order and status quo order filed by Peregrine.
The appellate court has yet to decide on the issue. Peregrine is reportedly being pursued by various contractors for arrears worth $6 million.
–With Ding Cervantes
