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Friday, March 29, 2024

Capitol Hills furor; Mighty’s bonanza

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Shareholders of Capitol Hills Golf and Country Club Inc. in Balara, Quezon City are facing an uphill battle in their favorite pastime. Unable to play their game, they also have not received any benefit nor payment from the club through the liquidation of the property assets.

One exasperated shareholder has asked the Security and Exchange Commission to shut down the operation of the club for allegedly negotiating with developer Ayala Land Inc., despite the lapse of the country club’s business permit seven years ago.

Shareholder and lawyer Rainier Madrid of law firm Madrid Danao & Carullo asked the corporate regulator to issue a cease-and-desist or closure order against CHGCCI for continuing its business despite the expiration of its corporate life on January 25, 2010, and deny any possible re-incorporation of the company.

CHGCCI operates a 23-hectare golf course along Capitol Hills Drive in Balara, Quezon City, which is reportedly being eyed by property developer Ayala Land.

Madrid Danao & Carullo noted in its letter to the SEC dated May 15, 2017 that CHGCCI as of January 25, 2010 no longer had any legal personality to continue the business for which it was established as mandated by the Corporation Code.

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CHGCCI was incorporated on January 25, 1960, with a term of 50 years that expired on January 25, 2010. No amended articles of incorporation extending its corporate term have ever been filed, documents from the SEC also show.

The Quezon City Business Processing and Licensing Office earlier issued a separate cease-and-desist order against CHGCCI related to its business permit on May 11, 2017.

The Corporation Code states that every corporation whose charter expired by its own limitation or is annulled by forfeiture should not continue as a body corporate for three years. The same corporation should settle and close its affairs, dispose of and convey its property and distribute the assets, and cannot continue the business for which it was established.

“Yet for the past seven years since January 2010, CGHCCI has failed to fully liquidate its assets to the grave damage and prejudice of its shareholders. Instead, CHGCCI continues to operate as a golf and country club to the extent of even incurring loans from Ayala Land Inc. in the guise of ‘preserving its assets’,” Madrid Danao & Carullo said.

The law firm claimed CGHCCI to date continued to bill monthly membership dues as part of its business operations.

“Worse, the current ‘board of liquidators’ of CHGCCI appear to be nominees and/or dummies of ALI who have failed to fully liquidate the assets of CHGCCI in an apparent strategem to enable ALI to ultimately take over and own CHGCCI’s remaining valuable asset—its 23-hectare golf landholdings,” the law firm said.

Treasure-trove

The government may have discovered a treasure-trove in Mighty Corp. The Bureau of Internal Revenue has so far estimated that the cigarette company owes the government P36.5 billion in tax payments, which could further balloon if the BIR makes good its threat to file to more cases against the homegrown tobacco company.

The figure could easily rise to P40 billion, if the new tax cases are lumped with the ones already filed.

But with just P36.5 billion, the government could readily build 54 drug rehabilitation centers at P674 million each that could house a total of 27,000 drug dependents.

The amount could erect additional hospitals and schools President Rodrigo Duterte initially wanted to build in Mindanao.

He could practically pepper the entire country with hospitals and schools with P36.5 billion and much more, when the total tax due reaches the vicinity of P40 billion.

He can build 1,200 two-story public hospitals with a 25-bed capacity worth P30 million each, or 60,800 classroom buildings worth P600,000 each.

The initial estimate of P36.5 billion is practically 32.8 percent of the P111.26 billion allocated for the Philippine National Police to hire more personnel and procure firearms and equipment in the war on drugs and criminality.

The amount is also 68.5 percent higher than the P25-billion outlay for improving the country’s capabilities to counter terrorism.

It can construct 521 road projects that span 58,873 kilometers worth P70 million per 11.3 kilometers. It can erect 2,000 flood mitigation walls which measure 457,600 lineal meters of concrete revetment.

It can employ an additional 137,200 teachers with a salary of P19,000 per month and provide medical care to 2.5 billion patients with diabetes and hypertension.

The amount, in addition, can achieve the ideal ratio of one nurse per barangay twice over by hiring a total of 63,826. The tax claim is also 47 percent of P78.2 billion allocated to the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program, which targets 4.4 million eligible beneficiaries in 2017.

Such tax amount is likewise 68.5 percent higher than the P25-billion outlay for improving the country’s capabilities to counter terrorism.

The government’s tax claim is staggering that it even eclipses the projected initial tax take of P31.4 billion from the motor vehicle excise tax reform bill. It is almost half of the P82-billion projected fresh revenues from the new Tax Reform Bill version pushed by the House ways and means and supported by the Finance Department.

Mighty’s alleged tax evasion to the tune of P36.5 billion, thus, will go a long way in building additional schools and infrastructure projects and improving hospitals.

E-mail: rayenano@yahoo.com or business@manilastandard.net or extrastory2000@gmail.com

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