RCBC wants 'innocent purchaser' tag in Luisita land deal

Rizal Commercial Baking Corp. (RCBC) on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to consider the Yuchengco-led bank as an "innocent purchaser" of the Luisita Industrial Park Corp. (LIPCO), claiming it was not aware of the "defect" of the property it purchased. "If we are not considered as an innocent purchaser, our rights as property owners will be trampled upon," Anacleto Diaz, legal counsel of RCBC said during the oral argument at the High Tribunal. The SC maintained in its long line of decisions that the doctrine of innocent purchaser is when a buyer buys the property in good faith and the buyer has no knowledge of any defect in the title of the property. "We exercised due diligence when we bought the 184-hectare property of LIPCO," said Diaz. When RCBC took on the property in Tarlac, he said the bank complied with various issuances of several offices such as the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board. "The [SC] must also respect on how we complied with issuances," Diaz said, pointing out that it was already suffering losses after it improved the road and water-sewerage system at the industrial park. Citing a report posted on the RCBC website, RCBC joined in November 2006 with Hacienda Luisita in putting up LIPCO, a 300-hectare industrial park for Japanese investors. RCBC intervened in the SC proceedings to “protect their interests" on Luisita as the 300-hectare property was mortgaged by Luisita to the bank, Diaz said. "Aren't you going to file a case of damages?" Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales told Diaz in a not-so-subtle hint for RCBC to file for damages against LIPCO. Diaz retorted, "We can't afford to throw money after a bad deal." He clarified that there was no fraud. Due to the lack of time, Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno asked RCBC to submit a comment on the impact of the so-called "bad deal" on the bank's financial status and on the investors. RCBC holds 524,997 shares in LIPCO. Pan Malayan Management and Investment Corp. and Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) have 839,995 and 134,999 shares, respectively. Mario Luz Bautista, counsel of LIPCO, defended the 9-percent ownership of HLI. "There's nothing suspicious, malicious and scheming with the 9-percent ownership of HLI," he said. Bautista added that RCBC and LIPCO's images in the international business community were tarnished, because the firms were dragged into the Luisita land dispute. —With Sophia Dedace/VS, GMANews.TV