ad info




Asiaweek
 home
 intelligence
 web features
 magazine archive
 technology
 newsmap
 customer service
 subscribe
 TIMEASIA.COM
 CNN.COM
  east asia
  southeast asia
  south asia
  central asia
  australasia
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 SHOWBIZ
 ASIA WEATHER
 ASIA TRAVEL


Web-only Exclusives
November 30, 2000

From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War
A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix

From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead
Bad news for the Philippines - and some others

From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies
Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights?

Asiaweek Time Asia Now Asiaweek story

CHIEF EXECUTIVE
God's Builder in Manila

A developer works to deliver on a $1.6-billion gamble

By Cesar Bacani and Wilhelmina Paras / Manila


IT TAKES A LOT to rattle Ricardo Pascua. "If we don't have any problems, I'd lose my job and my family won't eat," says the devout Christian, who religiously reads the Bible with a Manila study group. These days, he needs to draw on his reservoir of serenity more than usual. As CEO of one-year-old property company Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. (FBDC), Pascua, 48, is transforming a 214-hectare military base near the premier Makati business district into a city-within-a-city. He can't afford to fail. Bonifacio Land Corp., the private consortium that controls FBDC, agreed to pay the government a record $1.6 billion for the country's choicest piece of prime real estate last year.

And that's just for the development rights. The consortium will be spending $258 million more on roads, power lines, water supply, parks and other infrastructure. Land for condominiums, hotels, shopping malls, cinemas and office towers will be sold to other developers. Pascua's mission: to make sure the consortium and the government, which owns 45% of FBDC, end up with a winner -- and the Philippines gets one of the finest mini-cities in the world. "It's what the Filipino people deserve," says the CEO. "Already, we're finalizing a detailed plan to give to our children 25 years from now, so that they would know what we had in mind when they decide in their time what is best to do with all this."

There's more than enough to tackle today. First is raising the money for the rest of the purchase price. That used to be Pascua's main brief as chief executive of listed investment holding company Metro Pacific Corp. (1995 revenues: $189 million), which owns 38% of Bonifacio Land. He gave up his job at Metro Pacific to become FBDC president and CEO last March. The 19-member consortium has so far paid $948 million to the government, which has cleared 45 hectares -- 21% of the total area -- of squatter dwellings and other structures and turned the land over to FBDC. Manila has until February 1998 to give FBDC vacant possession of the remaining 169 hectares. It is expected to hand over at least 70 hectares by December.

Already, says FBDC, cash is starting to roll in. In February, 10 companies put down $53.8 million in deposits on lots totaling 15.4 hectares. Philippine Realty and Holdings Corp., a consortium member, agreed to pay $6,350 per square meter -- nearly five times Bonifacio Land's per-square-meter-bid for the entire FBDC spread. Pascua values the contracts at more than $1 billion. He expects more money from a buyer he declines to identify: negotiations are on for the sale of 64 hectares for a golf course and theme park. Sources say the interested party is a Hong Kong-based developer. Metro Pacific's parent, Indonesian-controlled First Pacific Holdings (1995 sales: $5 billion), operates from the British-run territory.

If the sale pushes through, says Pascua, Bonifacio Land's ability to "repay what it owes" would be enhanced. The deal will also determine whether the consortium will raise more capital this year. A $153.8-million rights offering in January had hit a snag: the Filinvest group, the consortium's second-largest owner with 20% of the shares, decided not to take up its option. In the end, Metro Pacific bought the rights, trimming Filinvest's shareholding to 16%. "They must have other priorities," says Pascua. "They probably want to concentrate on their Corporate City project." Filinvest is building a 244-hectare business and residential center in Alabang, south of Manila.

But can the government hand over the rest of Fort Bonifacio on time? The Bases Conversion Development Authority is meeting fierce resistance from the thousands of squatter families it is trying to relocate. Violence flared in February when the BCDA's demolition teams tore down concrete houses and shanties; Ruben Dante, 43, president of the Federation of Military-Civilian Residents of Fort Bonifacio, was shot in the right leg. A month later, unidentified persons opened fire on Dante, who later died from gunshot wounds. Asked about the relocation troubles, Pascua says FBDC can do little to help and must rely on the government: "It's the BCDA's problem."

He is more interested in talking about Fort Bonifacio Global City, as the development is known. "When we were conceptualizing the master plan, we looked at the world's cities that represented the best of modern urban planning and design," recalls Pascua. The project's centerpiece is a 150-hectare business and commercial zone, but cultural amenities are part of the plan. "Building owners will be required to devote one-half of 1% of their construction cost to sponsoring public art," says Pascua. He says Fort Bonifacio will be "infrastructure-ready" in three years. That is also about the time when a rival 1,167-hectare project on reclaimed land along Manila Bay, called Boulevard 2000, aims to get going.

Still, Pascua has complete faith in Fort Bonifacio. At the 1995 bidding, the Metro Pacific-led consortium shocked the business community with its offer, which was 42% more than the next-highest one submitted by Ayala Corp., the developer of Makati. Metro Pacific's share price plunged to a 1995 low of $0.08. With developers now lining up for a piece of the Fort Bonifacio action, the stock was trading last week at $0.24, up 199% in peso terms. The big pay-off is still years away. But Pascua is building for posterity. "Land is not inherited from our forefathers," he likes to say. "It is borrowed from our children." Amen.


This edition's table of contents | Asiaweek home

AsiaNow


   LATEST HEADLINES:

WASHINGTON
U.S. secretary of state says China should be 'tolerant'

MANILA
Philippine government denies Estrada's claim to presidency

ALLAHABAD
Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival

COLOMBO
Land mine explosion kills 11 Sri Lankan soldiers

TOKYO
Japan claims StarLink found in U.S. corn sample

BANGKOK
Thai party announces first coalition partner



TIME:

COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President

THAILAND: Twin teenage warriors turn themselves in to Bangkok officials

CHINA: Despite official vilification, hip Chinese dig Lamaist culture

PHOTO ESSAY: Estrada Calls Snap Election

WEB-ONLY INTERVIEW: Jimmy Lai on feeling lucky -- and why he's committed to the island state



ASIAWEEK:

COVER: The DoCoMo generation - Japan's leading mobile phone company goes global

Bandwidth Boom: Racing to wire - how underseas cable systems may yet fall short

TAIWAN: Party intrigues add to Chen Shui-bian's woes

JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness


Launch CNN's Desktop Ticker and get the latest news, delivered right on your desktop!

Today on CNN
 Search

Back to the top   © 2000 Asiaweek. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.

ÿ