Finance Dept eyeing sale of New Bilibid property

The Department of Finance is mulling the sale of the 550-hectare National Bilibid prisons in Muntinlupa City next year as part of aggressive privatization efforts to raise funds for the government's infrastructure and social spending expenditures. Finance Secretary Margarito Teves told reporters on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 103rd anniversary of the Bureau of Internal Revenue that the New Bilibid prisons property in Muntinlupa City was one of the major big –ticket items being considered for sale by the government next year. The New Bilibid Prisons property is located in Barangay Poblacion, Muntinlupa City. It is in the vicinity of posh community Ayala Alabang Village. “The Muntinlupa property is now something that was not even envisioned before. A number of investors are looking at properties and if we give them more information then we will probably get more interest," Teves stressed. The government hatched the privatization of the New Bilibid Prison property as early as 2001 when the facility was hit by fire. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has signed Executive Order 58 in October last year directing transfer of the National Bilibid Prison to a 300-hectare government property in Tanay, Rizal from Muntinlupa City . The property is bigger than the 240-hectare portion of Fort Bonifacio that the government sold to the Metro Pacific-led consortium Bonifacio Land Corp. for P39.2 billion in 1995. Aside from the sprawling property in Muntinlupa, Teves said the government is also looking at the possibility of disposing the 120-hectare Food Terminal Inc property in Taguig City . He added that the government also intends to dispose its shareholdings in Philippine National Oil Co. – Exploriation Corp. next year after fully divesting its shareholdings in PNOC – Energy Development Corp. this year. “Our policy is to move out of business. The Philippines now happens to be attractive," he said. He added that the government is still hopeful that it would be able to divest its shareholdings in food and beverage San Miguel Corp., Lopez-controlled Manila Electric Co., and its remaining 40 percent stake in PNOC-EDC this year. The Philippines plans to achieve a balanced budget by 2008, after suffering through a decade of persistent budget deficits. It sees revenues hitting P1.236 trillion next year or 17 percent of gross domestic product enough to bankroll the proposed P1.227 trillion proposed 2008 budget. - GMANews.TV