The lawyer of SM Prime Holdings Inc. yesterday said it does not appear that the Commission on Audit en banc has come up with a decision on the Negros Occidental provincial government’s sale and lease of its 7.7 hectare property in Bacolod City to Ayala Land Inc.

SMPHI lawyer Vince Patrick Bayhon said the COA has not issued an official statement yet on the outcome of its en banc meeting on the matter Monday night.

“However, what I understand is that they are still in the process of reviewing the transaction,” he said.

The DAILY STAR repeatedly tried to reach COA spokesperson Gilbert Kintanar yesterday but the person answering the phone at the chairman’s office kept saying he was at a meeting.

Kintanar had earlier said the COA was not delaying action on the Capitol’s request for its ruling on the deed of sale and contract of sale of its property to Ayala Land, which it submitted for review in July last year yet.

But no explanation was made on the delay in making its deliberations Monday night public.

SMPHI is opposing the provincial government decision to declare Ayala the winner of the negotiated bid for its property.

Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr., however, has insisted that the action of the province was above-board, and SMPHI did not win the second bidding for the property, because, like Ayala, it had entered a bid below the floor price set.

That is why a negotiated bidding was held, in which SMPHI refused to participate, the Capitol lawyers pointed out.*CPG

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