B6
BUSINESS NEWS
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY April 16 - 30, 2016
8990 Holdings to invest P3B in Las Piñas devt
Mass housing developer
8990 Holdings Inc. is investing
about P3 billion for the development of the 3.4 hectare lot it recently acquired from listed company SBS Philippines.
Earlier this week, SBS announced that 8990 acquired
the lot located along the Zapote
Road in Barangay Pamplona in
Las Piñas City for P858.97 million.
In an interview with report-
ers on Monday, 8990 Chief Executive Officer Januario Jesus
Atencio said the firm does not
yet have concrete plans for the
development of the acquired
property.
“It’s too early to tell,” Atencio said.
Atencio said he hasn’t decided yet whether the project will
either be similar to its affordable
housing condominium projects
in Ortigas and Tondo, or a 4-
story condominium such as the
one the company developed in
Muntinlupa.
“It can be either that [Fourstory condo] or a combination of
both,” Atencio said. “It’s too early
to tell. We just bought the property a few days ago.”
The firm’s affordable condominium township project located in Vitas, in Tondo, Manila
houses 13 residential buildings
and a two-story mall called De-
caMall, while a similar project
along Ortigas Avenue offers 26
residential buildings, a shopping
mall, and two Business Process
Outsourcing office towers.
Atencio said the new development will have commercial
spaces, but is not yet sure if it will
have a mall component like the
Ortigas and the Tondo developments.
“Depends on the density
we decide. But whatever it is, it
will have commercial spaces,
whether or not these commercial
spaces will big enough to be considered a mall, “ Atencio said.
Atencio did not give a target date for when the new development will start and complete
construction, but he estimated
that development would take
about 4 years.(C. Talavera, MT)
Brown outs may affect Mindanao elections—NGCP
Elections in Mindanao may
be affected by power supply disruption unless right of way issues
are addressed to fix transmission
towers, National Grid Corp. of
the Philippines said Tuesday.
“There will be a possible
vulnerability in the Mindanao
grid,” National Grid spokesman
Cynthia Perez-Alabanza told reporters.
She said several land owners in Mindanao remained uncooperative and refused National
Grid personnel entry into their
properties for the conduct of
clearing operations prior to the
elections.
“We have cleared about half
of the claimants. We have several land owners who remained
uncooperative. They have refused to soften their stand. We
had requested support from the
DoE, DILG and Comelec but it is
moving more slowly than we expected,” Alabanza said.
Alabanza said 29 claimants
in Mindanao were seeking government compensation for the
use of their land for the transmission facilities.
“There were 29 identified
claimants. Out of that we’ve
settled 16. We resorted to asking the assistance of LGU and
national government. We are
hoping that out of the 13, we can
settle seven,” she said.
She said some of the land
owners were asking for unreasonable compensation for their
land.
“NGCP has to be very prudent in its operation so we cannot just give in to whimsical
demands . This affects supply in
Mindanao,” she said.
National Grid said several
critical transmission lines needed
to be secured to ensure reliable
flow of electricity in the region.
National Grid wants to enter
the property where the transmission lines and towers are located
and clear vegetation in the area
that could cause line tripping.
“When we go and implement our clearing strategy, we
are hoping that there will be
understanding from the personalities. NGCP has always been
willing and ready to ensure trans-
mission facilities are operating
at their optimum... We are still
exhausting all efforts to settle,”
Alabanza said.
“The reserve for Mindanao
is very low. If you stand to lose 50
to 70 MW from two plants (Agus
1 and 2), it would be a significant
loss,” she said.
Alabanza said that with less
than two weeks before the elections, National Grid should step
up and clear those lines.
“We are always trying to
seek less hostile means and we
are trying to negotiate. We gave
a deadline last week but if they
continue to be uncooperative
then we will have to seek the help
of the AFP and PNP,” she said.
Mindanao is expected to
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have power reserves of 370 MW
during the election period, as
power plants including the hydros come back online.
“It looks good but again
we are making appeal that if we
leave things be, we will not have
any problem. People are seemingly planting trees maliciously,”
Alabanza said.(A. M. Flores, MS)