Sports facilities in New Clark City will continue to generate revenue for the government, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) assured on Tuesday.
"If not for COVID, we would have had at least five international groups that would lease the property for different occasions, the biggest would have been the Asian Swim Championships that were supposed to be held in November," BCDA Chief Vince Dizon said.
However, these were all cancelled when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The sports facilities were constructed for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games (SEAG).
Dizon said they received an unsolicited proposal from Robinsons Land, together with an Australian sports operator, to operate and maintain the sports facilities at their own expense with revenue share for the national government.
During the Senate hearing on BCDA's proposed P5.795 billion budget for 2021, Dizon stressed that the joint venture agreement with Malaysian firm MTD Capital Berhad is legal.
During the deliberation, Senator Nancy Binay cited a previous observation by the Commission on Audit (COA) that the contract between BCDA and the Malaysian firm is "prejudicial to the interest of the government."
"What we explained to COA was that in the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) opinion dated Oct 2, 2018, the OGCC confirmed the legality and endorsed the Asian Development Bank (ADB) recommendation to BCDA as its transactions adviser for the development of the National Government Administrative Center as both legal and advantageous to the government," Dizon said.
He added that it's important to note that the construction of sports facilities was only paid for after it was duly completed and accepted by BCDA and used during the SEA Games.
"The payment was only made, in fact, after the SEAG was hosted, earlier this year, in March of this year," Dizon said.
"We explained this to COA, based on OGCC opinion as well as the advice of the ADB, for the BCDA in order to not only complete the facilities in time for the SEAG, but more importantly, provide the best value for the government since we required the facilities to be accredited by both the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) and FINA for future international events," he added.
Dizon said that as far as the sports facilities are concerned, the agreement with MTD was already over and the sports facilities are now fully owned by the BCDA or the government.