SM to Negrenses: We'll take care of you

SM PRIME Holdings Inc. assured Negrenses that it will take care of them in terms of the continued inflow of investments in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, SM lawyer Vince Patrick Bayhon said.

He said SM is taking good care of Negros, even if Ayala Land Incorporated is here. Such can be bolstered should the lower court decide in favor of SM, as it can still continue its big investment in the province and city on top of its ongoing expansion project at the Reclamation Area.

Bayhon said he wants to correct the misimpression that Ayala has bigger investment than SM, adding that during the conduct of the first bidding, SM's bid price both in sale and in lease is higher than the bid price of Ayala.

"We in fact claimed that we were the winner in the first bidding because we have higher bid price than that of Ayala. It would be unfair for the other party to claim that they had a bigger investment than SM," he said.

He added that Ayala only increased their investment during the negotiated sale. This means that Ayala already knew how much was the bid price of SM and they just increased their figures, based on the figures submitted by SM.

He said that it is unfair to make any comparison. They should see the investment of Ayala during the first bidding because SM's bid price was higher than Ayala.

The P6 billion figure that they stated was the amount they offered during the negotiated sale and not during the first bidding.

SM did not participate in the negotiated sale and it cannot be stated that Ayala's investment is bigger than that of SM, Bayhon said.

"We were not a participant in the negotiated sale because of the irregularities we have cited," he said.

"If you look at it from the perspective of the first bidding, SM bid price was higher which means that SM's supposed investment would be bigger than that of Ayala," he stressed.

Bayhon also said that the existing development works at SM Reclamation Area will include a Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) buildings, a full service hotel plus tourism related facilities, a 3,000-seat convention center, retail components, road networks and parking facilities. (Carla N. Canet/Teresa D. Ellera)