Comteq’s unpaid P19-M debt ‘indisputable’; SBMA clarifies issue

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has clarified misinformation about the ejection of the defaulting Comteq Computer and Business College from the building it previously occupied here, pointing out that the P19.97 million the school owed in terms of unpaid rentals was indisputable.

In a statement issued over the weekend, the SBMA said that Comteq has occupied Bldg. Q-8131 since 2011 and collected tuition fees from students studying in the premises, but “has not paid even a single cent” from the use of the building.

“Bldg. Q-8131 is government property and rent is due for such use,” the SBMA said, reacting to a statement attributed to Comteq president Danny Piano that the P19.97-million back rentals they owed the SBMA was “debatable.”

It added that the need to pay rent for property used and profited from was not debatable, as there was nothing in writing between the parties that said the use of the facility was “rent-free.”

The Subic agency peacefully took control of Bldg. Q-8131 on November 25 after the Comteq management failed to settle its hefty financial obligation with the SBMA.

As early as April this year, the SBMA Legal Department already sent Comteq a “Notice to Vacate with Demand to Pay” because the school administration has been operating without securing any lease agreement or business registration for the school.

Following the takeover, officials of the debt-ridden school blamed the SBMA for not issuing a lease agreement and a Certificate of Registration and Tax Exemption (CRTE), and claimed this prevented them from paying rent over the years.

However, the SBMA said it cannot issue any lease agreement and CRTE then because the Comteq management “did not submit the required payment scheme proposal for it to be able to settle its accounts” and instead asked the SBMA to give them a “rent-free period” from 2011 to 2015.

The SBMA Board, however, disapproved the said request because it was disadvantageous to the government and was not allowed by the Commission on Audit (COA).

The SBMA also noted that the statement of account purportedly showing zero balance in Comteq ’s record only reflected payment for utilities and other billings that were automatically charged for buildings occupied by business locators.

However, a validated computation from the agency’s Accounting Department showed the school management’s unpaid rental dues at P19,971,435.68 as of November 30, 2017.

Comteq officials had also taken the SBMA to task for being “insensitive” to the fate of students, whose studies were disrupted by the takeover. But the SBMA pointed out that the continued occupation by Comteq of Bldg. Q-8131 since 2011 without any rental, as well as the six-month extension it granted the Comteq administration last April, happened “precisely because SBMA is concerned about its students.”

It added that while it had allowed Comteq to operate for years despite the lack of a lease agreement or a CRTE because it was an educational institution, it can no longer tolerate the “blatant abuse and profiteering” by the Comteq management, which disregarded the repercussion of its growing debt on its students from whom they collected tuition and other school fees.

The SBMA added that in ejecting the defaulting business locator, it was just doing its job as estate administrator of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. “It is not about money,” the agency made it clear. “It is about the obligation to collect rental dues for the use of the property of the government.”

It also said that it cannot be faulted for taking over Bldg. Q-8131 as it did, because it was school president Danny Piano who assured the SBMA Board in a letter that they would vacate the premises by October 31 this year, after the six-month extension given by the SBMA last April. (HEE/RBB/MPD-SBMA)

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SBMA takes over computer school for failure to pay obligations

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) on Saturday (Nov. 25) peacefully took control over the facilities of a computer school for failing to settle its financial obligation to the SBMA amounting to more than P19 million.

The move came after the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Olongapo City denied the application of a Comteq Computer and Business College Inc.to restrain the SBMA from serving an eviction notice due to its failure to settle outstanding obligations.

The SBMA’s Legal Department, assisted by personnel from the Law Enforcement Department, entered the premises of COMTEQ Computer and Business College at about 6:30 in the morning and informed the school’s personnel of the takeover.

Atty. Melvin Varias, lead of the SBMA team who took over said, that although COMTEQ shall be closed to its students and personnel, students and faculty of the nearby UP Extension Program in Olongapo (UPEPO) shall be allowed to enter the complex and use the facilities it has been sharing with the computer school.

In an order issued on Nov. 20, 2017, Judge Richard A. Paradeza of RTC Branch 72 refused to grant Comteq Computer and Business College, Inc. a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the SBMA in the absence of a reason for its issuance.

“One of the requisites for the issuance of a temporary restraining order is the presence of a substantial right that needs to be protected,” Paradeza said in his order.

However, “It is clear that (Comteq) has no clear existing and unmistakable right in esse that is entitled to legal protection, a violation of which would justify the issuance of the injunctive relief applied for,” Paradeza ruled.

The court in its order noted that Comteq filed an application for TRO to prevent the SBMA from taking over the classrooms and offices that the school occupied in Bldg. Q-8131 located at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. The school also sought “to prevent the harassment of students, teachers and staff by padlocking the classrooms, sequestering books and learning equipment, and preventing students and teachers from conducting their right to attend classes.”

However, Paradeza noted that on Nov. 14, 2017, the SBMA had already issued a notice giving Comteq until Nov. 19, 2017 to vacate the subject premises and to pay its outstanding obligation with the SBMA that amounted to P19,971,435.68.

He also noted that the SBMA has allowed Comteq to use the said facilities up to Oct. 31, 2017 for humanitarian reason, and that Comteq “had even wrote a letter dated April 27, 2017, asking SBMA that it be given up to the end of October to look for a new building to relocate to.”

Paradeza said that Comteq had essentially argued that pursuant to Batas Pambansa 232, or an Act for the Establishment and Maintenance of an Integrated System of Education, as well as Section 32 of the Manual for Regulations for Private higher Education, the termination of a school year shall be effected only at the end of an academic year.

But the judge also ruled that Comteq’s right to occupy the subject premises “had already expired on Oct. 31, 2017, pursuant to SBMA Board Resolution No. 17-05-0167 dated May 10, 2017” and that a similar notice to vacate and demand to pay had been sent by the SBMA to Comteq on March 30, 2017.

“It would appear that ample time was already given to the plaintiff to vacate the subject premises,” Paradeza said.

“The fact that the eviction notice was given in the middle of academic year is not substantial enough to prove the plaintiff’s right in esse. Besides, plaintiff already agreed to vacate the subject property at the end of October 2017 per letter dated April 27, 2017,” the judge added.

“Therefore, at this stage of proceedings, it cannot be said that plaintiff Comteq Computer and Business College, Inc. has substantial right on the subject premises that needs to be protected,” hence the court’s refusal to grant a TRO, Paradeza added. (30)

The SBMA issued Comteq a notice to vacate its facilities it is occupying at Building Q-8131 on Manila Avenue at the Central Business District after the school failed to meet requirements for its continued operation here.

SBMA concerned over fate of Comteq students

Earlier, the SBMA aired its concern over the fate of students of Comteq Computer and Business College, all because of the latter’s failure to pay its rental dues despite the leeway the agency has given for the school to meet its obligations.

“It’s because of the students that the SBMA has given Comteq enough consideration for far too long. This has been a lingering case of irresponsibility on the part of Comteq owners and I am sorry to say that we cannot extend any more generosity to them,” SBMA Chairperson and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said.

Eisma said that as early as April this year, the SBMA Legal Department has already issued a “Notice to Vacate with Demand to Pay” because the school has been operating without any valid lease agreement nor business registration with the SBMA, as well as failing to pay obligations with SBMA in the amount of Php17,771,863.19.

Eisma explained that the SBMA has actually taken over the Comteq facility last April, but the Board has granted another extension of six months for humanitarian reasons.

“However, during this final extension of six months, Comteq should have either settled their arrears with SBMA or should have responsibly arranged for the migration and transfer of their students, but they did not. Instead, they filed a case in court, thus betraying the kindness of SBMA,” she added.

In a letter dated April 27, 2017, Comteq president Danny J. Piano argued that the basis for the SBMA back pay rent of P17.7 million “is highly debatable” and added that the school “just have no capacity of paying back even a significantly reduced back pay rate.”

“Because of this, the new Board of Trustees of Comteq have come to the decision to transfer Comteq College out to Olongapo City where the rates are much lower,” Piano said.

Piano also asked for “a sufficient-enough transition” for the transfer, which he said can be successfully achieved by the end of the 2017 first semester or end of October.

With this, the SBMA Board allowed a six-month extension, but ordered that the school “should be fully out of the Subic Bay Freeport facility before the start of the 2017 second semester, or until October 31, 2017.”

SBMA records indicated that Comteq, which offers courses in preparatory, secondary, and tertiary levels, originally leased Bldg. Q–7932 starting 2008. In 2011, when construction of the Harbor Point Mall began, Comteq relocated to Bldg. Q-8131 where it occupied 10 rooms with a total area of 808.61 square meters, as well 188.55 square meters of common area.

Comteq’s transfer to the new location, however, met some problems as the building was also occupied by the University of the Philippines Extension Program in Olongapo (UPEPO), which wanted to solely occupy the building. After the SBMA Board finally approved Comteq’s lease proposal in August 2015, Comteq asked for a “rent-free” period from January 2011 when it transferred to Bldg. Q-8131, to August 2015 when the SBMA approved its lease. The SBMA, however, denied this request.

In May 2016, the SBMA reiterated its denial of Comteq’s “rent-free” request and further advised the school of its total back rentals amounting to P13.12 million. It also asked Comteq to submit a payment scheme proposal on the settlement of its rental obligations so that SBMA may process a contract for 25 years under the policy on educational institution.

However, without any positive response from the school on these matters, the SBMA Legal Department declared in August 2016 that because Comteq did not have any lease agreement with SBMA, or a sublease agreement with other Subic locator, or a valid certificate of registration, it was engaged in unauthorized operation inside the Freeport and in illegal use of SBMA property.

In January this year, the SBMA Board of Directors approved the issuance of a Notice to Vacate against Comteq and instructed management to file a case against the original owners for collection of the company’s outstanding obligations. (HEE/RBB/MPD-SBMA)

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‘SBMA did not defy RTC order over lease dispute’

The Regional Trial Court of Olongapo City allowed officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) to “mark the area covered by the expired lease contract” of a computer college here, which has declined to transfer its facilities presently located within an area set for a major commercial development .

SBMA Deputy Administrator Atty. Randy Escolango and Legal Department Chief Atty. Von Rodriguez led the SBMA team that visited the vacant lot adjacent to the administration building of Comteq Computer and Business College, where about 500 students and faculty members protested SBMA’s re-possession of the 1,200-square meter area here.

“Judge Raymund Viray of the Regional Trial Court has allowed SBMA to mark this area which is covered by the expired lease contract of Comteq, and that was what we did today - nothing more,” said Rodriguez.

Comteq has asked the Olongapo RTC to stop SBMA from demolishing the school facilities to give way to the development of a multi-million peso business and commercial center in the Freeport’s Central Business District that would extend up to the business district of Olongapo City.

“The protesters drew up posters urging us (SBMA) to respect the RTC’s status quo order. Of course, we would not dare defy the court’s order - that would be a foolish thing for us to do. We merely proceeded with what we told the court we would do and which the latter allowed us to,” said Rodriguez.

SBMA records show that the contract which covers the vacant lot has already expired.

Two other lease agreements with Comteq were pre-terminated by the SBMA on Thursday (October 13) since the school has failed to settle its financial obligations amounting to P2,363,000.00 plus US$9,971 in dollar accounts.

“The SBMA twice gave Comteq a 30-day curing period to settle its arrears in full or submit an acceptable terms of payment even if the contracts in fact allowed a one-time 30-day curing period. The second curing period, however, expired last July 7, without SBMA receiving any payment or sincere proposal from the school. The fact that it is already October or more than 3 months after July 7 shows that we have observed utmost leniency with them,” Rodriguez noted.

The fate of the two remaining ‘active’ lease agreements of Comteq with SBMA remains a court issue.

Both parties met with Judge Viray on Friday, who ordered them to file their respective position papers within seven days. From these, the judge will base his decision on whether to issue a temporary restraining order or an injunction.

“If the court issues an injunction, that will enjoin us from pre-terminating the two remaining leases and demolishing the structures there,” said Rodriguez.

“Pag wala, we can proceed,” he added.

Rodriguez said that in the Friday hearing, Comteq asked for SBMA’s commitment not to demolish anything yet. (SBMA Corporate Communications)

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Court orders anew status quo vs. Ayala mall development

Regional Trial Court Judge Raymund Viray ordered the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) to maintain status quo for a second time in two days on the controversial issue involving Ayala Land’s mall project and a local college here.

Judge Viray ordered SBMA and Ayala Land not to take any action to disturb the status quo for five days or until a decision is issued by the court.

Ansbert Joaquin, administrator of Comteq Computer and Business
College, said that they do not oppose the mall project, ‘since day one, we have made our position clear that all we want are equal space and amenities.’

Comteq urged the court to compel SBMA to respect Comteq’s lease agreements and provide facilities equivalent to the lease contracts in the event that it agrees to relocate in favor of Ayala Land’s mall. Comteq also asked the court to issue a permanent injunction pending resolution of the case. (30)

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