Government to sell Mile Long in mid-2018

MANILA, Philippines — The government is planning to sell by middle of next year the 2.9-hectare Mile Long commercial property in Makati City, the Department of Finance (DOF) said yesterday.

In an interview, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the DOF is planning to privatize the Mile Long property, previously occupied by Sunvar Realty Development Corp., the property company owned by the Rufino and Prieto families.

“Mile Long, that is a new asset that we received which we should be privatizing by the middle of next year,“ Dominguez said when asked what assets the government plans to privatize.

But according to Dominguez, the DOF has yet to determine the value of the property, as well as the method by which it would be privatized.

“That takes a bit of time. I think we have to get two or three (valuations),” he said.

“And then, of course, there are several ways to do it and then we have to evaluate. Do we sell it as one chunk or separate chunks? I don’t really know yet what is the optimum for the government,” he added.

Earlier, President Duterte expressed his intent to sell the Mile Long commercial property to generate funds that can be used to build houses for soldiers.

This was after the Makati regional trial court ordered Sunvar Realty to vacate the property last August.

Solicitor General Jose Calida earlier said Sunvar owed the government P1.656 billion in unpaid rentals as it refused to leave the property despite the expiration of its lease agreement with the government on Dec. 31, 2002.