THROWBACK SERIES: Attempt to depart speaks volumes about his involvement in the Camp John Hay malversation case

Immigration stops Camp John Hay's Sobrepena from leaving 

for US

By: Darwin G. Amojelar, InterAksyon.com

May 15, 2013 4:39 PM

(May also be seen at http://www.interaksyon.com/business/61860/immigration-stops-camp-john-hays-sobrepena-from-leaving-for-us)

InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS

MANILA - The Bureau of Immigration over the weekend stopped the chief executive of Camp John Hay's private operator from leaving the country amid malversation charges filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said on Wednesday.

In a statement, BCDA said immigration personnel asked Robert John Sobrepeña, chairman and chief executive of Camp John Hay Development Corp (CJHDevCo) to disembark from a plane prior to take-off last Saturday. The plane was bound for the United States.

“His attempted departure speaks volumes about his involvement in the Camp John Hay malversation case. We will remain vigilant until he and his cohorts are brought to justice,” Arnel Paciano D. Casanova, president and chief executive of BCDA said.

“We applaud the Bureau of Immigration for their swift actions in making sure that Mr. Sobrepeña was kept from leaving the country so that he may be made to account for his fraudulent deals,” Casanova said.

He said Sobrepeña’s attempted flight to the US is “a sign of bad faith and indicative of guilt” considering that he had called a press conference in Baguio City the day before his flight to announce that he would fight the malversation raps.

“First he declares that he will fight [the charges], and then he tries to run the very next day, before the case can even be raffled and without having been arraigned? He is clearly a flight risk, trying to delay the court process. This is a textbook display of obstruction of justice,” Casanova said.

On August 15, 2012, BCDA filed 52 counts of malversation against board and management of CJHDevCo and its subsidiary, Camp John Hay Hotel Corp (CJH Hotels).

The 22-page complaint stated that the CJHDevCo directors and officers, even after the lawful demand of the BCDA, refused to return the public properties to the government.

These properties include 16 units of the John Hay Manor Hotel and 10 units of the John Hay Suites Hotel, which area valued at a combined P121 million. The hotel units were payments in kind or dacion en pago made to BCDA in 2008, as partial settlement of CJHDevCo’s unpaid rental obligations.

The complaint further stated that CJHDevCo continues to earn from these units but refused to provide the liquidation of public funds—revenues that it earned from the use and lease of the 26 units.

On April 1, the DOJ approved the filing of two counts of malversation of funds. “In the instant case, respondents' delayed remittance of the rental income of BCDA despite repeated demands did not extinguish their criminal liability for malversation of public funds," the department said.

Sobrepeña is co-chairman of listed Global-Estate Resorts Inc, formerly known as Fil-Estate Land before his family sold the company to Andrew Tan. Sobrepeña's family also owns College Assurance Plans (CAP), which sough court rehabilitation after failing to service its pre-need planholders.