A series of investigations conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that started way back in 2014 has resulted in the cancellation of the DENR’s 2002 Supplemental Agreement with government housing contractor Blue Star Construction Development Corporation due to its “illegality, failure to go through a bidding process, and failure to execute.”

In 1997, Blue Star signed a joint venture agreement with the DENR for the survey, design, construction, development and marketing of the Garden Cottages project on a 130-hectare government property in Tanay, Rizal.

This was followed by a supplemental agreement entered into in 2002 that is now being cancelled by the DENR for “lack of the required presidential proclamation declaring the subject matter of the contract for housing purposes and no document to prove that the proposed construction went through the regular procurement or bidding process,” according to a letter sent by the agency to Blue Star owner and Masungi Georeserve proponent Ben Dumaliang.

Likewise, the DENR said, Blue Star failed to deliver its proposed “5,000-unit Garden Cottages housing project within five years from signing (of the supplemental agreement) on 15 November 2002.”

Intended beneficiaries of the housing units were employees of various government agencies, including the DENR, the Departments of the Interior and Local Government, National Defense, Office of the President, and Presidential Management Staff.

The additional government housing units covered in the 2002 Supplemental Agreement were to be located in Lot 10, where the Dumaliang family had also built structures and where they are currently operating their Masungi Georeserve, a resort charging visitors for day treks to caves, stone formations, trails, and rope bridges in the area.

Also, the Garden Cottages covered by the original 1997 Joint Venture Agreement between Dumaliang and DENR which were originally intended as housing for government employees are now venues for weddings and pre-nuptial shoots offered to the public by the Dumaliangs for a fee, according to the DENR.

That was one reason for DENR’s cancellation of the 2002 supplemental agreement; other reasons included the lack of a required Presidential Proclamation that should declare Lot 10 as open for disposition to develop housing units within the area.

Apparently, the area was registered under the Republic of the Philippines in Original Certificate of Title 3556 and later transferred to the Bureau of Corrections and DENR Region IV-A (CALABARZON).

DENR Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs Norlito Eneran underscored that Blue Star, despite its 1997 joint venture agreement with DENR on the proposed Garden Cottages on aforesaid 130-hectare public land in Tanay, “was still able to secure the supplemental agreement in 2002 that increased their project area by an additional 300 hectares. This despite no substantial housing units built on the original 130 hectares awarded them.”

Eneran stressed that since the original joint venture agreement for the housing project was never executed, and no bidding happened despite the five-year timeline, “the 2002 Supplemental Agreement is without basis,” and therefore cancelled.

Actually, said Energan, “multiple investigations conducted by past administrations all had found irregularities in the contracts awarded to Blue Star — a joint venture agreement inked in 1997, the 2002 supplemental agreement, and a memorandum of agreement in 2008 for which Blue Star negotiated to exchange the unbuilt 5,000 housing units on the 130-hectare project site, the proposed Garden Cottages, including the community center school site, rights-of-way for the roads, springs, spring mains, and their improvements — for only 145 housing units in the 1.5-hectare Pueblocillo Village in Dasmariñas, Cavite.”