Aseana City Association, Ongpin locked in marina project dispute

Businessman Roberto Ongpin has refused to pay his association dues for six years, amounting to P28 million owed for his marina project between the Mall of Asia and Solaire Casino, the Aseana City Association said in a statement Tuesday.

The association said it received a Makati regional trial court order in June 2013 to let Ongpin's deliveries through "even if he has not paid his dues," with the promise of the marina project being finished this year.

However, the association said Ongpin still refuses to pay the dues, which led it to file suit last year to collect all monies owed by Ongpin's Alphaland Development, Inc.

Despite the court order, the deliveries for the project didn’t come, the association said, adding that a cursory look at the area would show that the project has hardly broken ground.

Ongpin blamed the delay on the Wenceslao Group for allegedly blocking his deliveries.

Not a member

In an e-mail response to GMA News Online, Alphaland lawyer Rodolfo Ponferrada said Alphaland is not a member of the Aseana Business Park Estate Association.

"Thus, it has no obligation to pay the mentioned association dues," he said.

Ponferrada also said that the construction of the Marina Club is ongoing, with the project being redesigned by architect Carmelo Casas in collaboration with Wong & Ouyang of Hong Kong.

"As explained by Mr. Ongpin in his letter to the prospective Marina Club members, the project has been expanded to include some 800 residential units," he said.

In 2007, Ongpin and the Wenceslao Group put up Alphaland Bay City Corporation to develop the marina project on the 32 hectares both firms contributed as equity into the joint venture – 22 hectares from Wenceslao and 10 from Ongpin.

But Ongpin put up a separate company – Alphaland Marina Corporation – which started selling the marina shares and kept all the proceeds outside of the joint venture.

Another Ongpin company, Alphaland Development, Inc., then got a foreshore lease for the berths and boats of the members.

Last year, Ongpin tried to use its ten-hectare contribution to the joint venture company to borrow P3 billion from a local bank but was asked for the Wenceslao group's signature as the land was already transferred under the ownership of the joint venture.

“If Alphaland really was expressly allowed by the joint venture agreement as stated by Alphaland lawyer Atty. Ponferrada to mortgage its equity contribution, then why did the bank require Alphaland to seek the Wenceslao Group's signature?” the statement read.

Ponferrada said the bank required the Wenceslao Group's signature on the Alphaland loan simply as one of the bank's requirements, "even if we think it is not necessary as Alphaland has full title to the then mortgaged properties." — Danessa O. Rivera/BM, GMA News