By the Bohol Chronicle
A Filipino-Chinese businessman has sued his three partners in a real estate development project for estafa before the Tagbilaran City Prosecutor’s Office.
Businessman Restituto Tan filed an estafa suit against certified public accountants Carlito Pinoliad, Julieta Pinoliad Cabibil and architect Eugenia Pinoliad for their alleged failure to remit proceeds of reservation fees on a joint venture subdivision project in barangay Tiptip, this city.
In his complaint affidavit, Tan said that sometime in November 2006, the respondents proposed to him a joint venture to develop his 4-hectare property in barangay Tiptip into a mass housing subdivision project.
Efforts to contact the respondents proved futile until newstime last night.
Having personally known the respondents (Pinoliads) and after being convinced with their proposal, Tan agreed to venture together with the respondents on the project which was later called Bethany Subdivision.
In the joint venture agreement, the Pinoliads were designated as developers of the project with Carlito as manager.
Tan likewise issued several special powers of attorneys to the respondents in order to enable them to process all needed permits and licenses pertaining the subdivision project.
According to Tan, the respondents started accepting reservation deals with different individuals for a house and lot package at the Bethany Village without his knowledge. Tan alleged that, again without his knowledge, each prospective buyers were required to pay P15,000 collected by respondents and were issued receipts bearing the subdivision name and his name as proprietor.
The reservation fees collected reached to about half a million pesos. Accordingly, of the P15,000 reservation fee, P7,000 will be going to the joint venture as initial downpayment for the house and lot package while P8,000 is charged to processing.
Until now however, Tan accused the respondents of refusing to remit the reservation fees received from different individual buyers.
Moreover, the respondents (Pinoliads) also “failed to deliver their promise of developing the Bethany Village or even process any of the applications filed by the prospective buyers.
This prompted Tan to engage the services of Joanna Legacy Homes Inc. based on the recommendation of the Pag-Ibig Fund Housing Program.
Tan consequently signed a memorandum of agreement with the respondents, Joanna Legacy Homes and Home Development Mutual Fund of Pag-Ibig in order to realize the Bethany subdivision.
In the MOA, it was agreed that the respondents will be paid a total of P8 million by Joanna Legacy Homes to compensate for their past services on condition that reservation fees they collected from prospective buyers and pertinent permits and licensing documents of the subdivision project be turned over.
“But despite their clear contractual obligation, the Pinoliads (respondents) maliciously failed and intentionally refused to render the necessary accounting and the turn-over of all documents relating to the implementation of the Bethany Village project,†the complaint affidavit states.
Instead of complying with their obligations under the new MOA, Tan added, the respondents “sabotaged†his contractual relation with Joanna Legacy Homes by writing a letter to the Business and Licensing Division at City Hall on January 2009.
The letter assailed that Joanna Legacy Homes did not have a permit to promote, offer to sell or sell units of the subdivision project since it does not have a documentation to undertake such project or the necessary business permit.
The city government immediately issued a stoppage order to Joanna Legacy Homes after receiving the “poison†letter from respondent Carlito Pinoliad.
Joanna Legacy Homes later decided to back out of the contract “because of the treacherous actuations†of the respondents, Tan said.
Last January 22, Joanna Legacy Homes officially notified the other parties of the project that they are rescinding the contract for “the apparent breach of faith†by the respondents “as manifested by their continuing failure and inability to comply with contractual obligationsâ€.
Tan said that even with a final demand letter sent to last March 31, the respondents still refused to comply or respond to his demands.
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