WORMS EYE VIEW By Rommel Ynion Spirit of the Deed It doesnt take a rocket scientist to understand the substance of the deed of donation between Megaworld and the Department of Tourism over that piece of land on which the Iloilo Convention Center is now rising, thanks to the controversial construction company, known for its alleged involvement in overpriced government buildings. Common sense dictates that the deed of donation stemmed from the terms of the donor being imposed on the government in the most straightforward manner even comprehensible to the most intellectually challenged in our society. Now, to encapsulize in laymans language, this is the spirit of that deed of donation clearly implied by no less than Megaworld itself in its contract with the government: Megaworld, having designed the Iloilo Convention Center with the aid of the architectural firm of William Coscolluela, knew that P 200 million was more than enough to build the ICC, on the property which it donated to the government. Therefore, it was the reason why it demanded a guarantee from the government, as stated in that deed of donation, the amount of P200 million. Why? Because it knew that that amount was all that was needed for the government to comply with their requirement of having the ICC built on the donated property as a precondition to the consummation of the contract. The original cost of the ICC, clearly implied in that deed of donation by no less than the donor itself, was borne out of the original estimate of the designer of the ICC who in its computation of the project cost, pegged it at industry standards of P 25,000 per square meter for high-end buildings already. In that deed of donation, Megaworld was clearly imposing its own rules on the government to ensure that its donation would not go to waste and that it would serve as the catalyst to attract investors to its major development project in Mandurriao, Iloilo City. To cut the long story short, that deed of donation was even one-sided in favor of Megaworld. It is as clear as daylight that in this deal, the donor will profit immensely from their donation with the donee still wondering how it can possibly benefit from this in the first place. The spirit of that deed of the donation, therefore, only animated the interests of the donor, serving solely its interests, not of the government. It is, therefore, within that context that even the P 200 million it demanded as a guarantee from the government to build the ICC was all it deemed was necessary to ensure that its interests would be protected with the now controversial building rising on that piece of its donated land and later on, generating revenues for its coffers. How then the cost of ICC rose from P 200 million to over P 700 million is still a matter of conjecture. It is simply unimaginable to the discerning eye how the cost could skyrocket that way even after Megaworld itself already implied its actual cost in its deed of donation. The ICC controversy has actually put on trial not only the Senate but the Filipinos as well. The manner in which we, along with the Senate, will respond to this issue will determine our future as a nation. The worst we can possibly be under these circumstances is to be apathetic. For blind to the visible, and deaf to the audible, we can only expect to be mute enough in the face of the tragic fate that awaits us.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 02:37:01 +0000
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