PERJURY RAPS FILED AGAINST BCDA’S ARNEL CASANOVA

Camp John Hay developer, CJH Development Corporation (CJHDevCo), today filed a criminal case for Perjury against Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) President Arnel Casanova, at the Prosecutor’s Office of the City of Manila.

         In a Complaint-Affidavit executed in behalf of CJHDevCo, Atty. Manuel T. Ubarra, Jr., CJHDevCo Vice President for Litigation, charged Mr. Casanova with perjury for falsely stating under oath in a complaint filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) that CJHDevCo allegedly concealed from BCDA that a property transferred to the latter in 2010 in payment of CJHDEVCO’s rental obligations was subject of a prior sale, and on that basis, fraud was supposedly committed against BCDA.

“Mr. Casanova had the opportunity to verify that no prior sale was in existence at the time CJHDEVCO transferred the property in question to BCDA in 2010.  He personally spoke with the lawyer of the alleged prior buyer, which lawyer is, in fact, a close friend of Mr. Casanova.  Talks between Mr. Casanova and the lawyer of the supposed first buyer and documents made available to Mr. Casanova in those talks, could not have led to any other conclusion other than the fact that the said buyer abandoned his interest in the property way back in 2001, or 10 years before the property in question was transferred to BCDA,” stated Atty. Frank Chavez, CJHDevCo Legal Counsel.

“What puts the final nail in the coffin of Mr. Casanova, so to speak, is the fact that even if he already knew fully-well that the alleged buyer had abandoned all interest in the subject property, he still proceeded to maliciously file a complaint for fraud allegedly committed by CJHDevCo in the transfer of the said property to BCDA,” Atty. Chavez added.  “Unfortunately, for Mr. Casanova, because of the malicious filing of the complaint by BCDA, the alleged prior submitted before the DOJ his very own sworn personal statement that he had abandoned all interest in the property way back 2001, a fact which confirms the position of CJHDevCo”, Atty. Chavez said.

Atty. Chavez further added, “Mr. Casanova has been very arrogant in his pronouncements that he is ready for any suit that might be filed against him in this dispute with CJHDevCo since it comes with the job.  Well, Mr. Casanova, as a public official, holding the highest office in the BCDA, should also exercise due diligence in the exercise of his authority, to ensure that the reputations of private citizens, who are supposedly his “bosses”, following the tone of President Aquino, are not unduly besmirched because he did not do his homework completely.”

Atty. Chavez also said that CJHDevCo remains steadfast in its conviction to prosecute this Perjury case against Mr. Casanova up to the very end.  “CJHDevCo will proceed against Mr. Casanova to the fullest extent of the law for the falsehoods he has made before the DOJ thru his baseless complaint of an alleged double sale to BCDA”, said Atty. Chavez.  “It does not matter one bit even if this Perjury case takes a long time to resolve and even if Mr. Casanova is out of government service, we will continue to prosecute this case, to right the wrong done by Mr. Casanova in maliciously maligning CJHDevCo through a clearly baseless suit,” said Atty. Chavez.