News RELEASE
4 March 2004
Reference: Nestor Puno Contact Number:(Japan) 81 9092240922)

Filipinos in Japan to Albert: Use your math and don't be a dictator of the DFA

Filipinos in Japan threw their strongest condemnation to Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert for being blind on selling for fifty years, under the guise of built-operate-transfer scheme, the Philippine properties in Japan.

“Already, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin recommended that Malacañang defer the awarding of the 50-year lease contract, to the two Japanese firms that won the bid to develop lands owned by the Philippine government, in Tokyo and Kobe. By brushing aside his recommendation, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert is acting like a dictator of the DFA,” says Nestor Puno, Migrante Party List Japan chapter Chairperson.

The approved bidding of 948 million pesos (1.8 billion yen) for three Philippine properties in Tokyo and two in Kobe is undervalued according to a Filipino architect in Japan.

“Am I to believe that our government officials are so stupid as to not realize that the properties are being highly undervalued?” said Francis Yu, who works with a leading real state property business in Metropolitan Tokyo.

According to Architect Yu, “to put things in perspective: the 'acknowledged conservative' price of that (Shibuya) property is 740,000 yen per square meter. 740,000 times 2,489 sq mts is 1.84 billion yen -- this is the minimum money one should get if the property is sold outright now.”

In leasing land in Japan, the right to use the property is often priced separately from the monthly rental of the property. Which means, you pay a lump sum on top of the monthly rent to guarantee that you can use the property for a desired number of years (so that you cannot be evicted).

The rights to a 50-year lease on a property as prime as Shibuya is easily 50%, even up to 70 or 80% of the land value. This comes out to at the very least 1 billion yen for Shibuya alone - excluding the monthly rent the Philippines should be getting. With these figures, it is easy to see that a paltry 1.8 billion yen (948 million pesos) for all three properties makes for a very bad deal for the Philippines, concluded Architect Yu.

“We urge Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin to stand firm, in his personal capacity, on his statement. This is a just cause for Filipinos -- especially those in Japan who are vigilant against public officials who do not use mathematics for our country’s interest," stressed Puno.#