Clarification re row in Ayala Alabang Village

Allow me to make the following clarifications regarding the BizBuzz item titled “Injunction vs Ayala Alabang gates” (Business, 11/25/15).

Traffic congestion along Commerce Avenue has become horrendous due to uncontrolled development work around Ayala Alabang Village (AAV). This will get even worse especially with the development of more high-rise structures, such as those being put up by Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) itself right in Alabang Town Center.

The San Jose and Champaca gates are very much a part of the subdivision plan approved by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board and are in fact long-overdue deliverables that ALI owes the Ayala Alabang Village Association (AAVA).

Ayala Alabang Village (AAV) is almost 700 hectares in size and has 5,300 lot owners. With over 40,000 inhabitants, it has only three gates, all located along Commerce Avenue which now sees heavy traffic every day.

In comparison, much smaller villages developed by ALI’s predecessor, Ayala Corp., such as Forbes Park, Dasmariñas Village, San Lorenzo Village, have five to six gates each located in different geographical directions.

After almost 40 years of AAV, ALI still claims ownership of the road lots and open spaces when in fact Presidential Decree No. 1216—the law that mandates developers to donate road lots and open spaces as soon as the subdivision is deemed completed—provides for the following:

1. Open spaces are “outside the commerce of man.”
2. “Open spaces,” after completion of the subdivision project, should be donated within six months from its completion; the law-mandated donation is long-overdue.
3. ALI cannot enter into lease contracts over “open spaces” that it does not own.
4. The lease contracts are what the law calls void and nonexistent on two grounds, namely: a) their objects are outside the commerce of man; and b) they are contrary to law.
5. All expenses incurred by AAVA for the maintenance of the “open spaces,” including real estate taxes, which ALI passed on to it via void and nonexistent lease contracts, are recoverable from ALI.

AAV residents know for a fact that ALI used the Champaca Gate for about 10 years exclusively for the heavy equipment and manpower it used for its Southvale development project in the 1990s, sadly, without due regard for the safety and security of AAV residents.

In fact, ALI opened the Champaca Gate without proper consultation with AAVA lot owners. Although ALI did not want to close the gate for the convenience of Southvale residents, the AAVA board decided to close it, because they saw the gate as a security risk at the time due to the raw condition of the surroundings outside.

Given AAV’s graying population and its healthcare needs, the lack of alternate points of ingress and egress (such as San Jose Gate to Asian Hospital, for example) and the closure of Champaca Gate—all attributable to ALI—pose a clear and present danger to AAV residents who are in need of timely hospital care.

The continuing violation by ALI of pertinent laws constitutes criminal offenses.

Lastly, the report that there are ALI rival property developers who support AAVA in its gates-opening project is a big fat lie. The sole developer involved indirectly in this project is Filinvest, only because the right-of-way road to be used by AAVA belongs to Filinvest.

—EPIFANIO S. JOAQUIN, president, Ayala Alabang Village Association