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Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Housing agency lifts stop order v. Lakeshore
By Dante M. Fabian
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) on Monday cancelled the cease and desist order issued last Wednesday banning Central Country Estate Inc. (CCEI), developer of the world-renowned Lakeshore project in Mexico, Pampanga.
HLURB Regional Director Editha Barrameda suspended the cease and desist order after CCEI officials presented voluminous documents that belied the accusations in a complaint alleging that the real estate developer sold over 800 lots in 76 hectares of The Lakeshore without the appropriate license to sell, conversion documents from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and environmental compliance certificates (ECC), and municipal development permits.
"After examining the supporting documents submitted by CCEI relative to the requirements for The Lakeshore project, this Office hereby suspends the implementation of the earlier temporary cease and desist order pending the hearing to be held on Saturday," Barrameda said in a letter to CCEI chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Nestor Mangio.
Mangio described the incident as a "false alarm," saying that CCEI has all the required permits and licenses for all its subdivision projects in The Lakeshore.
"I will fight for what is right," he said during the press conference at the Hotel Gracelane.
"These are the same old issues and allegations which were invented by Luisito Hipolito and which CCEI has appropriately debunked early this year," he added.
Mangio said Hipolito had been trying to collect millions of pesos from CCEI as commissions from brokering a proposed joint venture with the Sta. Lucia Realty Corporation, which did not push through. He said Hipolito was the one who processed and got paid for expediting all the licenses and permits and the conversion of the lands.
CCEI officials said Hipolito also threatened to expose to the media the refusal of Mangio to pay the amount he has been trying to collect from him.
"I don't owe him (Hipolito) anything. He was working for Sta. Lucia and not CCEI. Also, the joint venture with Sta. Lucia did not materialize," said Mangio.
CCEI vice president for administration Edel Morales said that last March 30, the HLURB even issued to CCEI a certificate of completion for a 102-hectare portion of the housing estate.
"Why is Hipolito now questioning the conversion certificates which he himself worked out and obtained from the DAR, and when he has been paid for that by CCEI?" Morales said.
(July 18, 2006 issue)
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