Construction firm bills gov't P1.2-B over questionable contracts on state-owned lands
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The construction firm responsible for the development of the resort within the environmentally protected Upper Marikina River Basin in Rizal Province is billing the government for over 1 billion pesos, citing the latter's alleged inability to provide land within its territory.
The latest statement of account sent by Blue Star Construction and Development Corporation (BSCDC) to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) dated 11 April 2024 reported costs resulting from the agency's failure to deliver a 10-hectare plot of land designated for the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP).
This allocation is covered by Presidential Proclamation No. 1158 signed on 8 September 2006.
The billing cited legal, security, and miscellaneous expenses; damages incurred from the delay of the delivery of the lot; and even a monthly rental of P100,000 paid to a “professional squatter.”
The statement also indicated that the expenses were incurred starting in June 2018.
According to the DENR Investigation Committee formed in 2019 to look into the said contracts, the billings by Blue Star are without legal basis.
“The contracts entered into by BSCDC (Blue Star) had legal infirmities ranging from unlawful excise of land for housing purposes in a National Park to award of contracts without bidding,” the investigation committee stated.
Per the disclosures of Blue Star with the Securities and Exchange Commission, among the key officers and stockholders of Blue Star are Ben Dumaliang, Ann Adeline Dumaliang, and Billy Crystal Dumaliang.
The most recent of the series of questionable contracts involving Dumaliang with the DENR is the Memorandum of Agreement with the late Environment Secretary Gina Lopez with Masungi Georeserve Foundation (MGF) on 25 April 2017 for the protection of the nature reserve and wildlife sanctuary.
The area covers 2,700 hectares in the city of Antipolo and the towns of Baras, Tanay, Rodriguez, and San Mateo, all in Rizal.
The Memorandum of Agreement gave the MGF a “perpetual land trust” over the area which is now a resort referred to as Masungi Georeserve.
The key officers and trustees of MGF are also Ben Dumaliang, Ann Adeline Dumaliang, and Billie Dumaliang.
The Masungi Georeserve resort collects entrance fees from tourists (P1,500 per person on weekdays and P1,800 on weekends).
It offers accommodations starting at P5,000 a night and hosts events like weddings and company events with rates starting at P120,000.
The resort has a restaurant.
Tourists trek to caves, stone formations and trails, rope bridges, and a spider web-like elevated platform that gives a 360-degree view of the Sierra Madre mountain range.
However, the MOA with the late Secretary Lopez was deemed void ab initio (from the start) by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In its Position Paper dated 15 February 2023 addressed to the House Committee on Natural Resources, through Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. who was investigating the alleged irregularities in Masungi, the Department of Justice declared the MOA as being violative of the Constitution.
Apart from this, the DENR investigative team also cited several violations by the foundation.
They include no clearances from the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB); no free and prior consent from the ancestral domain owners and the National Commission for Indigenous People (NCIP); it has no Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC); and no accreditation from the Department of Tourism.
Masungi Georeserve resort is part of the Upper Marikina River Basin Watershed covering 27,980 hectares in Rizal province declared by executive order of the American governor-general in 1904.
It has since been covered by several presidential proclamations, republic acts, and administrative orders.
In 1997, Blue Star entered into a joint venture agreement (JVA) with the DENR for the development and operation of Garden Cottages.
In 2002, an additional area of 300 hectares was added to the JVA through a Supplemental Agreement.
A Memorandum of Agreement in 2008 followed, with the intention to offset the houses already built by Blue Star in Dasmarinas City, Cavite, from the agreed 5,000-unit Garden Cottages intended in Rizal Province.
