PIATCO wants CA to reverse ruling on $176-M compensation claim

The Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc., the builder of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) is set to contest before the Court of Appeals a lower court's decision awarding the firm $176 million (roughly P7.6 billion) as "just compensation." PIATCO – which built NAIA 3 with German firm Fraport AG – was demanding from the government a payment of $846 million. But the amount the Pasay Regional Trial Court (RTC) awarded to the firm was only one-fifth of what it wanted. In a phone interview with GMA News Online on Wednesday, PIATCO vice president for legal and public affairs Moises Tolentino Jr. said the company's lawyers have filed with the Pasay RTC Branch 117 a notice of appeal indicating that they want to elevate the matter to the Court of Appeals. "Filing a notice of appeal is the first step to elevating the decision. We filed it first with the RTC, and then the RTC will elevate the records of the case to the Court of Appeals," Tolentino said, adding that the appropriate pleadings will still be filed with the appellate court. Last Tuesday, the Pasay court pegged at $176 million (roughly P7.6 billion) the government's "just compensation" for PIATCO. The court said that the P3 billion the government had paid to PIATCO in 2006 will be deducted from the P7.6 billion. The court arrived at the $176 million amount taking into consideration that NAIA-3 "suffered from massive structural defects, the fact that construction thereof was never completed by defendant PIATCO, and the existence of evidence showing that funds were used [supposedly] by the defendant in irregularities that attended [NAIA-3] contract." "Equity dictates that the costs for repair and completion of the [NAIA-3], as well as the amounts used in fiddlings must not be included in computing the amount of just compensation.... Compensation must be just not only to the property owner but also the public which ultimately bears the cost of expropriation," said the Pasay court's decision written by Judge Eugenio M. dela Cruz. $176M 'a pittance' In a separate statement issued on Wednesday, PIATCO said the ruling was "unacceptable" and that the $176-million award was "a pittance." PIATCO added that Judge Dela Cruz took the government's arguments"almost hook, line, and sinker." "The decision took the valuation proffered by the government through the Office of the Solicitor General almost hook, line, and sinker. The OSG's valuation was for $149. Indeed, it [the Pasay court ruling] sounded like an echo of the government lawyers' pleading," the firm said. PIATCO also scored the Pasay court for saying that the Philippine government suffered "prodigious financial loss" and "tainted image to the global community" because of the controversies surrounding the building of NAIA-3. The company said that the Pasay court "forgot entirely that it is the private investors who financed the terminal's construction, with not a single centavo contributed by the government." In fact, with Judge dela Cruz’s decision, it is PIATCO who is to suffer the prodigious loss. But, of course, such a decision will indeed contribute immensely to the 'tainted image of the country,' specially to the investment community around the globe The expropriation and arbitration battle between the Philippine government and PIATCO and Fraport have reached international arbitration courts in Singapore and Washington. — LBG, GMA News