Filipino Adventist Network: Sale of AUP Farmland

A PORTION OF AUP FARM LAND SOLD

FOR THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

From the Office of Dr Francisco D. Gayoba, President

Adventist University of the Philippines

Feb 8, 2022

The University’s intention to sell a portion of its farmlands has finally come to fruition, after many years of prayer and seeking God’s guidance.

Because the Technical Committee on Medical Education of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED-TCME) has given the University only 10 years to establish a training hospital, the University decided to sell some of its farmlands to finance its construction.

Upon consultations with the General Conference and the Southern Asia Pacific Division (SSD), the suggestions were that a section of the property should be sold, and the remainder should be on a long-term lease. The plan was for the farmland sale proceeds to be used to fund the hospital’s initial construction as well as purchase a property for a satellite campus, with the remaining funds from the long-term lease to be utilized to complete the hospital in the following years. The AUP Board endorsed this plan, which was then approved at the December 2017 Constituency Meeting.

A special advisory committee for property development was then created by the Board including experts on land development and sales, and finance personnel from the General Conference to handle such consequential matters. As per the recommendation of the advisory committee, the University hired three appraisal firms to evaluate the true market worth of the land, thus ensuring its profitability. The University has exhausted all safeguards to ensure that the transaction complies with denominational policy and be profitably favorable to the University.

On January 2020, the University Constituency met and approved to offer 24.2 hectares of idle farmland for sale. After negotiations with Alveo Land Corp, the University Board voted to approve the terms of sale on September 13, 2021. As per denominational policy, the terms offered by Alveo was also approved by the SSD Executive Committee. Also, as part of its compliance, consent was granted by the North Philippine Union Conference (NPUC) Executive Committee on October 28, 2021, and likewise approved by the NPUC Corporation Board on the same date.The proceeds of the sale will primarily be used to fund the construction of a 100-bed University Medical Center and the purchase of a satellite campus as a replacement for the sold land. The University wishes to express its gratitude to the Lord and all its constituents for their prayers and support.

https://filadnet.blogspot.com/2018/01/use-of-idle-aup-lands-to-fund-projects.html

Proposed Use by Developers of Idle Farm Lands to Fund Infrastructure Projects

Consequences/Disadvantages: AUP will be locked in, enclosed, and circumscribed within its own property. The reduced campus size from 165 to 110 hectare will have (1) relinquished right of way to more than half of its property situated along the Sta Rosa-Tagaytay main highway while entrance and exit will be limited to a narrow strip of right of way northwest of the campus; (2) surrendered a large swath of the northeastern portion of farm land that lies adjacent to a road connecting the Sta-Rosa-Tagaytay highway to Nuvali Blvd and continues southward crossing the Diezmo river; and (3) ceded access to its natural geographical southern boundary, the Diezmo river;

Lessons from history: a word of caution
The sale to land developers of “idle” farmland (meaning the school has long ceased farming it) will result in reducing the present campus from 165 hectares to 110 hectares. Proceeds will be used to fund the construction of a training hospital for the university’s new medical school that admitted its pioneer class in 2015. Without our own base hospital, clinical training and bedside experience are done at a recognized government-run medical center located miles away, about an hour and a half by public transportation. Selling farm land in exchange for cash will also enable the university to purchase much cheaper land for an “extension campus” situated a couple of hundred miles north.

A master plan completed back in 1975 defined the various phases of campus development. Changes in administration, however, seem to have resulted in the university administrators losing a copy of the original master plan for which reason they keep drawing up newer master plans. Truth of the matter is it would be easy to trace it back to Dean, Mann, Johnson and Mindanhall, a Los Angeles, CA-based planning and architectural firm or reach out to Don C. Van Ornam who was in charge of the campus’ initial development Don presently resides near Southern Adventist University.

Consequences/Disadvantages: AUP will be locked in, enclosed, and circumscribed within its own property. The reduced campus size from 165 to 110 hectare will have (1) relinquished right of way to more than half of its property situated along the Sta Rosa-Tagaytay main highway while entrance and exit will be limited to a narrow strip of right of way northwest of the campus; (2) surrendered a large swath of the northeastern portion of farm land that lies adjacent to a road connecting the Sta-Rosa-Tagaytay highway to Nuvali Blvd and continues southward crossing the Diezmo river; and (3) ceded access to its natural geographical southern boundary, the Diezmo river;

Strike One:

https://filadnet.blogspot.com/2012/05/eternal-gardens-compromise-agreement.html
Partnership with Eternal Gardens in 1976 in connection with the old Philippine Union College campus in Baesa, Caloocan City, with the hope of enabling us to purchase and develop a new site for our campus at Puting Kahoy, Silang, Cavite. Briefly, this resulted in a protracted court case reaching all the way to the Supreme Court lasting more than 10 years until a final decision was reached in our favor., The court awarded us Php 100 mil. Collecting the full amount from Eternal Garden was no easy matter, however. So with the able assistance of "mediators" who demanded a cut, we were able to retrieve Php 60 mil.

Strike Two

https://filadnet.blogspot.com/2010/10/joint-venture-agreement-campus.html
Joint Venture with Wilper Corp, 2009, regarding 20 plus hectares of our new campus at Puting Kahoy, Silang, Cavite. This also reached the courts and to my knowledge, to date there is still no final settlement.

Strike Three???
https://filadnet.blogspot.com/2022/02/sale-of-aup-farmland.html
Sale of Farmlands to Alveo Land Corp.