Megaworld denies fraud allegations

MANILA, Philippines — Megaworld has responded to allegations of fraud from construction company Datem Inc., saying that it was Datem which “failed to fulfill its obligation to Megaworld in completing the projects that have been assigned to them.”

As such, Megaworld was forced to have other contractors take over the projects.

Datem is seeking P1 billion from Megaworld supposedly in unpaid dues for services rendered to the company, according to Bilyonaryo.com.

A Quezon City regional trial court has issued a court order freezing five projects of Megaworld as Datem sought to collect nearly P1 billion in unpaid dues from Megaworld, the report said.

Judge Rochelle Yvette Galano of Branch 105, Quezon City Regional Trial Court, issued a Writ of Preliminary Attachment (WPA) on Megaworld for its refusal to fulfill its obligation to pay P873.3 million to Datem under a mutual agreement signed in September 2022, Bilyonaryo said.

In the court order dated Nov. 9, Judge Galano said that the evidence submitted by Datem demonstrated “sufficient grounds to support the claim that defendant (Megaworld) engaged in fraudulent activities in contracting the debt and in fulfilling its obligations.’”

Datem claimed that Megaworld supposedly ignored its request for payment over the last 12 months.

Megaworld, however, insisted that it was forced to have other contractors take over the projects due to Datem’s “gross negligence and blatant disregard for project completion timelines.”

“After the lockdown was lifted, Datem could not catch up with the completion of works for the projects contracted to them,’’  it said.

“Despite many meetings with their president, Levy Espiritu, Datem continued to fail in fulfilling their obligations and worked slower compared to other similar-sized or even smaller contractors. They also consistently missed the completion dates they committed to Megaworld,” the Andrew Tan-led company said.

It also clarified that Megaworld has not evaded any substantial claim for payments from Datem.

On the frozen assets, Megaworld said the P873 million “is just a meager 0.2 percent of the total assets of Megaworld.”

Megaworld is Andrew Tan’s listed property giant while Datem is among the country’s big construction companies.