BCDA files malversation charges against Camp John Hay Dev't Corp

State-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority filed 52 counts of malversation charges against the board of directors of the Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevCo) Tuesday for the latter’s refusal to return properties and public funds amounting to P121 million. In its complaint filed at the Department of Justice, BCDA president and chief executive officer Arnel Casanova accused CJHDevCo and its subsidiary, Camp John Hay Hotel Corp. (CJH Hotels), of unlawfully taking the earnings from 16 units of CJH Manor Hotel and 10 units of CJH Suites Hotel, both in Baguio City. BCDA said that earnings from the 26 hotel units should have been remitted to the government, being public properties. Before initiating the complaint, Casanova demanded the return of the hotel units to the government, accusing the respondents of misappropriating and converting the funds for their own personal use and benefit. “Certainly, the units subject of the dacion en pago should already have been in the coffers of the government and the benefits, in the form of revenues earned therefrom, should already have been fully utilized and appropriated by the government. This, however, was not the case with BCDA,” he said. Dacion en pago is a legal mode of satisfying a monetary debt by the transfer of property from debtor to creditor. Casanova said CJHDevCo has been “holding, managing, and operating” the units from 2008 to the present and have been profiting from it without giving a proper accounting and remittances to the BCDA. CJHDevCo has been the lessee of the BCDA-administered CJH Manor Hotel and Suites for 25 years, renewable for another 25 years, since October 19, 1996. In 2008, CJHDevCo gave the title of the 26 hotel rooms to the government as partial payment of its unpaid lease rentals amounting to P2.6 billion. However, the BCDA claimed that it never signed the leaseback agreement over the units as the term of the leaseback exceeded the term of CJHDeVCo’s lease over Camp John Hay, which is only for 25 years. Earlier, a complaint for perjury was filed by CJHDevCo against Casanova before the Office of the City Prosecutor in Manila. CJHDevCo said Casanova committed perjury when he wrongly accused its officials of using false pretenses to deceive and induced the agency to enter into a “dacion en pago” agreement on May 27, 2011, in order to settle its outstanding obligation with BCDA. Despite the absence the leaseback arrangement agreement, CJHDevCo did not withdraw the hotel room units from its regular operations. Instead, it retained the BCDA owned units in its roster of rooms in the Manor Hotel and Suites hotels and continued to offer them to the public as part of its accommodation facilities. - BM, GMA News