Court issues TRO on sale Asian Terminals property

MANILA, Philippines - Asian Terminals, Inc. has obtained a temporary restraining order from the Bataan court, blocking the sale of its Bataan property due to unpaid property taxes. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the owner of the Mariveles Grain Terminal (MGT) through subsidiary Mariveles Grains Corp. said it had "secured a TRO from the Bataan Regional Trial Court effectively stopping the Provincial Treasurer of Bataan from the threatened public auction of certain real properties located in the [terminal] for alleged delinquent real property taxes." "The Bataan RTC said that the public auction of the MGT Properties is premature and violates Asian Terminals and Mariveles Grains’ right to due process pending the determination by the Local Board of Assessment appeals and later, the Central Board of Assessment Appeals, on the issue of the validity of the revised property assessments covering the MGT Properties," the disclosure said. The TRO, the company said, stopped the supposed public auction last Wednesday. The parent firm told the local exchange late last month that it had filed an appeal on the notice of re-assessment issued by the provincial assessor with the local board of assessment appeals. "ATI has religiously paid its taxes and is confident of its legal position," the company said in its earlier disclosure. The appeal is still pending with the local assessment appeals board, the company said. Meanwhile, San Miguel Corp. has been planning to buy the terminal from ATI, which owns a 15-year contract up to 2013 to operate and develop it, for P1.6 billion. Asian Terminals had said the proceeds of the sale would be used for the modernization and expansion of its operations at the South Harbor. — Paolo Luis G. Montecillo, BusinessWorld