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By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter
THE big names in the Philippine
property sector are bidding for a 54-hectare property that used to
serve as the airport in the central province of Iloilo, according to
the Department of Finance.
Finance Undersecretary John
Philip Sevilla, who is in charge of the government’s privatization
program, said the list of interest buyers includes Ayala Land Inc.,
Empire East Land Holdings Inc., Filinvest Land Inc., Robinson’s
Land Corp., Rockwell Land Corp. and SM Prime Holdings Inc.
The auction for the old Iloilo
airport is scheduled on April 24.
“This property looks much
easier to sell than the PTIC, but we see it the other way,”
Sevilla said, referring to the earlier sale of the government’s
stake in Philippine Telecommunication Investment Corp., which holds
a six-percent stake in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.
“But we see much smaller
privatization revenue from overall asset sale this year compared to
PTIC,” he said.
The government earned about P25
billion from the sale of its PTIC stake.
Sevilla said the government will
not set a floor price for the Iloilo property to secure higher bids,
adding the property is huge.
The finance department however
recently released a price range for the airport based on land
transactions in Iloilo. The price ranges from P500 million to P2
billion.
The government is also setting
aside the rezoning of the property since it would limit the options
of the possible buyer, although the local government of Iloilo has
committed to assist the winning bidder in rezoning the area.
Sevilla said the government will
not pursue the titling of the airport annex, but added that it is
open to suggestions from the bidders on how to treat the same.
Finance officials are bullish
about selling the property despite the lack of infrastructure near
the area, and the presence of illegal settlers. Outstanding cases
involve not ownership, but the non-payment of rental by occupiers.
After the Iloilo property, the
government plans to sell the al-Amanah Islamic Bank and its stake in
Manila Electric Co., Sevilla said.
“Along the way the probability
will increase to more than 60 percent or 70 percent that we can
finish and complete our initiative. In the meantime however we did
not factor in San Miguel assets,” Finance Secretary Margarito
Teves said, referring to the government’s holdings in Southeast
Asia’s largest food and beverage conglomerate.
The department said that it could
raise the privatization goal to jack up nontax revenues to P103.8
billion from the P90.6 billion originally submitted to Congress for
approval.
Other assets scheduled to be sold
are the government’s property in Fujimi, Tokyo, and the Philippine
Postal Corp.
The government also hopes to
settle the privatization of two government-run television stations,
RPN 9 and IBC 13, this year.
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