ANGELES CITY- A Korean investor has sought the help of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other government agencies after Global Estate Resorts, Inc. (GERI) allegedly blocked electric and water service to a condotel it developed at the cost of some P120 million at the Fairways and Bluewater Resort on Boracay island.
Korean architect Joohan Lee, chairman of the J Plus firm based here, reported to SEC that GERI had violated their joint venture agreement (JVA) through “predatory business practices” to stall the operations of the already-completed 72-room premium condotel developed by his company.
The complaint said J Plus “had invested easily more than P120 million to complete the construction and furnishings of the Villa Beatriz condotel but is being deprived of using, selling and earning from it by GERI through denial of electric and water connections to the Fairways’ utilities despite clear tapping points stipulated under the joint venture agreement (JVA).”
Of the 72 rooms of Villa Beatriz, J Plus was supposed to own and operate 42 rooms and the rest was reserved for an affiliate of GERI as land owner. “GERI also failed to honor its obligation to deposit the land title to a bank safe box for safekeeping,” Lee said.
J Plus legal counsel Peter Paul Danao said the JVA authorized “tapping” rights into the electric and water connections of Fairways, but the staff of GERI has refused J Plus personnel after the condotel was finished.
Danao said J Plus was all set to operate the condotel in June last year, but this was cancelled as the building did not have power and water.
“GERI has also failed to honor other contractual obligations, including naming the unit owners of Villa Beatriz condotel as members of Fairways,” Danao noted.
He said J Plus had exhausted, to no avail, all diplomatic and amicable means to resolve these issues through mails, attempts to meet with top officers of GERI,” he said.
Danao noted that J Plus was instead told to allow the GERI affiliate to operate the entire condotel in exchange for a 10 percent share from gross profit.
J Plus has asked SEC “not to act and process any transfer, registration, reclassification and renaming of any and all assets, shares or interest” of GERI.
The Korean firm also asked the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) “not to process any pending and future application (of GERI) for registration, clearances, permits, authorizations for their prospective residential/commercial subdivision and condo projects that are inconsistent and opposed to the original project registration papers of Fairways with attached time share villas, beach and other amenities.”
Lee said his firm has already suffered an estimated “foregone income” of about P260 million, arising from the delays in its operation of the condotel.
