SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SMBA) authorities are eyeing to collect some PHP144.8 million in long-due obligations of locators in the next five years.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma Eisma on Tuesday said that more than 30 investor-companies have expressed their willingness to settle their dues and negotiated for payment arrangements that were approved by the SBMA Board.
Eisma said the current SBMA Board has approved staggered payment of accounts in order to collect debts that accumulated but were not acted upon by previous administrations.
“We simply inherited these problems, but it is now incumbent upon us to set things right and prevent more losses to the government,” she said.
She also said that the payment schemes approved by the Board of Directors since January 2017 had so far accounted for 102.45 million in peso accounts and 847,203 in dollar accounts, or a total of PHP144.8 million in principal alone.
The amounts cover payments for arrears in mostly land rentals and leases of facilities, as well as unpaid common use service area (CUSA) fees, deposits, performance bonds, and other charges.
Eisma said that the payment schemes will also yield more than PHP5.6 million and USD53,000 in future interests.
The companies with approved payment schemes include Lyceum of Subic Bay, with PHP31.58 million in arrears, deposits, and other fees; Global Daeil Subic, Inc., PHP16.68 million; Subic Bay Yacht Club, PHP10 million; and Speed Subic Corporation, PHP6.77 million.
The latest firm to avail of a payment scheme was Japanese pioneer company Koryo Subic, Inc.
Based on the payment scheme approved by the SBMA Board, Koryo would pay USD219,688 for lease rental of its three expansion areas, as well as CUSA fee amounting to PHP394,491.
The Board also called for upfront payments of USD43,937 in rent and PHP78,893 in CUSA fee, as well as escalation rates for the computation of its back lease rentals.
“We’re gaining much headway in our collection program because our investors understand that we are serious in managing Subic with transparency, impartiality, and consistency,” Eisma said.
“They can see for themselves that we are applying rules uniformly in keeping with the thrust of President Duterte to fully utilize government assets and maximize their benefits,” she said.
Aside from the SBMA’s program to collect overdue debts, the agency is also pursuing the recovery of unused assets that were previously contracted out for management by Subic-registered companies.
She also said that the agency has repossessed some SBMA facilities that have been left idle or unimproved by lessee-companies, and also revoked the contract of investors who failed to meet their contractual obligations.
“We have to do this because the SBMA and the government are losing money every single minute that these prime assets remain unproductive,” Eisma said.
“Land and the buildings and facilities on it are a very precious commodity in the Subic Bay Freeport because of the limited space here, so we have to be diligent in optimizing these assets for productive economic activities,” she added. (PNA)
