The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) announced today that there was a failure of bidding for the “Payanig sa Pasig” Property (Payanig), which is considered as the crown jewel of the assets surrendered by known Marcos associate, Jose Y. Campos.

One interested bidder, Robinsons Land Corporation, was present during the bidding. Two other pre-qualified bidders, Next Urban Alliance Development Corp., a subsidiary of the Ayala Corporation, and Megaworld Corporation did not attend the bidding. For this reason, based on rules established by the Commission on Audit, a failure of bidding occured.

Despite this, the PCGG remains positive about the future of the property. The fact that several major developers in the country were interested to participate in the bidding has given the Commission enough reason to continue with its mandate of overseeing ownership of the property on behalf of the national government. The Commission is pleased that, despite the numerous attempts by various groups to stop the bidding, including issuance of threats to members of the Commission, no court orders were issued to restrain the bidding and it still pushed through as scheduled. The PCGG stresses that the property has been and still remains under the name of Mid-Pasig Land Development Corporation, a government owned company and one of the surrendered companies to the PCGG by Jose Y. Campos.

The Commission as the registered owner of the property intends to further exercise its rights as an owner in order to protect government interest as well as bring in more money to the government’s coffers. Recognition by the different government entities as well as business enterprises of the government’s ownership of the property has allowed the PCGG to legally expand areas of the property under its possession. Most recently, it was able to take possession of an area of over 10,000 square meters. The Commission will continue to vigorously pursue cases against illegal occupants in the area through the Office of the Solicitor General.

Aside from efforts to attract more lessees in the meantime as well as to study the possibilities allowed by the privatization rules after a failed bidding, which include a negotiated sale or a rebidding of the property, one option that the commission is contemplating is to reserve an area in the property for government institutions that will need to establish an office within the prime business district.

The government continues to lose income from the Payanig property as a result of these illegal occupants of some portions of the property. As of June 2015, total government losses have already amounted to around Php 2 billion.