SBMA Says “COMTEQ Has Not Paid A Single Cent Since 2011”
The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has decried what it says as misinformation on the ejection of the defaulting Comteq Computer and Business College from the building it previously occupied in the Subic Freeport.
Comteq has occupied Bldg. Q-8131 since 2011 and collected tuition fees from students studying in the premises, but “has not paid even a single cent” from the use of the building, SBMA said in a statement issued over the weekend.
The SBMA statement affirmed that the P19.97 million unpaid debt of Comteq as of November 30, 2017 is “indisputable,” belying Comteq president Danny Piano’s claim that the P19.97-million back rentals they owe was “debatable.”
In April this year, the SBMA Legal Department already sent Comteq a “Notice to Vacate with Demand to Pay” because the school administration has been operating without securing any lease agreement or business registration for the school.
However, upon the request of Piano in a letter to the SBMA Board, Director Benny Antiporda convinced his colleagues to allow Comteq to operate for another full Semester or six months to allow for a smooth transition, albeit the Board made it clear that the school “should be fully out of the Subic Bay Freeport facility before the start of the 2017 second semester, or until October 31, 2017.”
But after the end of the six-month extension in October, Comteq refused to vacate Bldg. Q-8131 and instead, Piano went to court to seek a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against SBMA’s take-over, which the Olongapo Regional Trial Court branch 72 denied.
“Ample time was already given to the plaintiff to vacate the subject premises,” Judge Richard A. Paradeza said in his Order in November,”…it cannot be said that plaintiff Comteq Computer and Business College, Inc. has substantial right on the subject premises that needs to be protected, hence the court’s refusal to grant a TRO.”
The SBMA peacefully took control of Bldg. Q-8131 on November 25 after the Comteq management failed to settle its hefty financial obligation with the SBMA.
Officials of the debt-ridden school has blamed the SBMA for not issuing a lease agreement and a Certificate of Registration and Tax Exemption (CRTE), and claimed this prevented them from paying rent over the years.
However, the SBMA said it cannot issue any lease agreement and CRTE then because the Comteq management “did not submit the required payment scheme proposal for it to be able to settle its accounts” and instead asked the SBMA to give them a “rent-free period” from 2011 to 2015.
The SBMA Board, however, disapproved the said request because it was disadvantageous to the government and was not allowed by the Commission on Audit (COA).
The SBMA also noted that the statement of account being circulated to mislead the public purportedly showing zero balance in Comteq ’s record only reflected payment for utilities and other billings that were automatically charged for buildings occupied by business locators.
However, a validated computation from the agency’s Accounting Department showed the school management’s unpaid rental dues at P19,971,435.68 as of November 30, 2017.
SBMA said that while it had allowed Comteq to operate for years despite the lack of a lease agreement or a CRTE because it was an educational institution, it can no longer tolerate the “blatant abuse and profiteering” by the Comteq management, which disregarded the repercussion of its growing debt on its students from whom they collected tuition and other school fees.
It also said that it cannot be faulted for taking over Bldg. Q-8131 as it did, because it was school president Danny Piano who assured the SBMA Board in a letter that they would vacate the premises by October 31 this year, after the six-month extension given by the SBMA last April. (Iya G. Oliva) ###
