SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—“Our concern here is for the good of the many. This is bigger than all of us. This is not about Ocean Adventure. This is about Subic Bay Freeport as a whole.”
This was the statement of Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Administrator Wilma Amy T. Eisma, as she assured that a commitment to peace and order is still the top priority in the Freeport following the recent incident involving top officials of the Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium Inc.
“There’s a lot more at the Subic Bay Freeport for everybody to appreciate and enjoy. There are lots of things to do here in Subic Bay,” Eisma said, adding that the clash between rival claimants of the Ocean Adventure property is an isolated case.
“I already endorsed to the [SBMA] Board that we have to file an action with the courts, possibly, an interpleader to ask the court to resolve this because we cannot let the Freeport suffer,” said Eisma, a lawyer by profession.
The SBMA administrator also condemned the opposing parties’ use of undue force in resolving their intra-corporate dispute, saying the actions taken by both sides “were clearly not in accordance with proper and lawful procedures that are strictly being enforced in Freeport.”
She said it is sad the image of the Freeport is being dragged down because it paints a bad picture of what Subic Bay Freeport is very well-known for—a safe tourist destination.
It can be recalled that on the night of February 13, then-SBMEI and Chief Executive Officer Arthur Tai, who was then out of the country, was replaced by Scott Sharpe, one of the founders of SBMEI, in a forcible takeover of the Ocean Adventure facility, and assumed the management and operation of the company.
But late in the afternoon of April 3, a group of employees supportive of Tai came back to oust Sharpe and attempted to take over the facility, after the Bureau of Immigration was issued a mission order to take custody of Sharpe.
The latest fray was diffused with the help of SBMA officials and the agency’s Law Enforcement Department along with the Philippine National Police, ending the standoff before midnight.
Meanwhile, in a letter addressed to the SBMA Administrator, Tai said: “We maintain that a proper investigation on these matters must be performed to arrive at the truth,” referring to the latest incident.
He also assured that “they will seek redress from the proper court” regarding complaints issued by the company’s employees who were displaced during the February 13 takeover.