Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Tuesday the government will privatize the controversial Mile Long property in Makati City next year to raise more funds for development projects.
“Mile Long, that is the new asset that we received which we should be privatizing by the middle of next year,” Dominguez told reporters in a news briefing.
Dominguez said the government’s plan was to speed up the privatization of more state assets, starting with the “big ones” including Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and Mile Long.
Dominguez said the valuation of Mile Long remained to be verified. He said the government would tap an internal and two external valuation firms.
“I think we have to get two or three. And then, of course, there are several ways to do it. And then we have to evaluate. Do we sell it as one chunk or separate chunks,” he said.
“I don’t really know yet what is the optimum for the government,” Dominguez said.
Mile Long, a 2.9-hectare complex along Amorsolo Street owned by state-run National Power Corp. and the government, was leased to Technology Resource Center Foundation in 1978 until 2002. TRCF subsequently subleased the lot to Sunvar Realty Development Corp.
The Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 141 ordered Sunvar last month to vacate the Mile Long property following the Aug. 14 resolution of the Court of Appeals. The order was served by Solicitor General Jose Calida and the court sheriff on Sunvar and other tenants of Mile Long.
Sunvar said in a statement it would comply with the order of the Court of Appeals and instructed its lawyers not to file any court pleading that might impede the execution of the earlier decision of the court.
The Mile Long property has been the subject of a long battle between the government and Sunvar, a company owned by the Rufino and Prieto families since the early 2000s.
Dominguez earlier said the government would start privatizing next year the 17 casinos being operated by state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
He said the capacity, including the number of tables and visitors of each casino, should be known first to finally determine their real valuations.
He said the privatization of Pagcor casinos might take several years because the deals were quite “complex,” requiring a thorough study to see to it that it would be advantageous for the government.
He said privatizing Pagcor should be done now to avoid losing their customers.
Pagcor operates 46 casino properties in the country and is required by law to remit half of its annual gross earnings to the Bureau of the Treasury. These funds are eventually used in community and development projects of the government.
President Duterte told Pagcor last year to privatize its assets to raise funds for the government. In the first quarter of 2017, Pagcor’s net income grew 25.75 percent to P1.3 billion from a year ago.
Pagcor also paid a total of P7.37 billion in gaming taxes and contributions to the government in the first three months of the year.