Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday said the recent dismissal by the Court of Appeals of a petition and motion for reconsideration filed by SM Prime Holdings Inc. in connection with the sale and lease by the Negros Occidental provincial government of its 7.7-hectare property in Bacolod City to Ayala Land, is a vindication.

“It shows that we are on the right track and have acted according to law,” the governor said.

Marañon said he hopes the CA decision will be an eye-opener for the Commission on Audit to act soon on the contracts on the sale and lease of the property that the provincial government sent to it for review in July last year.

The proceeds from the sale and lease of the property will benefit the people of Negros Occidental because it will be used for various projects involving education, health and livelihood, the governor said.

The Ayala development will also change the landscape of Bacolod City and create thousands of jobs, he added.

In its decision promulgated February 16, the CA denied SMPHI’s motion for reconsideration to its resolution on Sept. 6, 2011 denying its application for a writ of preliminary injunction against the provincial government.

The CA also dismissed a petition for certiorari filed by SMPHI against Bacolod Regional Trial Court judge Estefanio Libutan Jr. for denying a temporary restraining order it sought against the Negros Occidental provincial government on the sale and lease of the 7.7-hectare property.

The CA said the petition and motion for reconsideration filed by SMPHI before it are without merit.

The court’s denial of SMPHI’s prayer for a TRO took into consideration its claim that it had the “vested right as (the) winning bidder when it offered the higher bid than its competitor (Ayala Land)”, it added.

The court weighed SMPHI’s claim against the provincial government’s contention that it had the right to reject the petitioner’s bid even if it offered a higher bid than that of the competing bidder, considering that both submitted bids below the floor price, the CA said.*CPG

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