By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
NEITHER the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) nor the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in northern Mindanao have records of the Capitol Lease Ventures, the firm owned by a mysterious woman who bagged a 2013 contract to build structures for subletting on a leased 1,029-square meter property at the capitol compound.
In a Nov. 18, 2019 certification, lawyer Fel Lester Brillantes, DTI customers protection division chief for Region 10, stated: “This is to certify that per available records of this office, pursuant to Act No. 3883 as amended (otherwise known as the Business Name Law), there is no business name registration filed.”
This paper also checked with the Securities and Exchange Commission office here earlier and was informed that it also has no record of “Capitol Lease Ventures.”
SEC director Renato Egypto stated: “A verification made on available records on file with the SEC Cagayan de Oro extension office, shows that the name Capitol Lease Ventures... [is] not registered either as a corporation or a partnership.”
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) checked with the database of the SEC main office and found no record of a “Capitol Lease Ventures” or any derivation.
The name “Capitol Lease Ventures” was spelled out in the 2017 civil case for Accion Publiciana or Recovery of Possession and Damages filed by the Philippine Red Cross against leaseholder Rhea Ritzie P. Nueva and Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano in connection with a Sept. 3, 2013 agreement that allowed the former to lease 1,029 square meters across the Northern Mindanao Medical Center, build structures on it and engage in subletting.
The humanitarian aid organization presented the court with a copy of a certification that the Emano-Nueva contract had no approval of the provincial board. But Emano, through a lawyer, asserted that the governor did not need to seek the provincial board’s approval because, supposedly, the province’s revenue code already authorized the local chief executive.
The Red Cross filed the case because Nueva allegedly encroached on part of the property donated to the humanitarian aid organization by the provincial government in 1956. The property dispute has yet to be resolved in court.
But while the DTI’s Brillantes certified that the Department has no record of any firm registered as “Capitol Lease Ventures,” documents from the local treasurer’s office show the firm regularly secured business permits since 2013.
Its business permit details show it is a business owned by a single person with DTI No. “02149287” supposedly secured on Aug. 22, 2013, or just 12 days before the Emano-Nueva deal was signed.
Documents show the firm categorized as a “lessor,” was issued business permits nos. 19327 in 2013, 03802 in 2014, 12741 in 2014, 13397 in 2016, 10946 in 2017, 12947 in 2018, and 14492 in 2019.
Incidentally, the 2013 to 2019 business permit records identified the taxpayer as “Nueva, Rhea Ritzie Sagrado” and not “Rhea Ritzie P. Nueva,” the name that appeared in the 2013 contract and the court documents.
Emano has not spoken in detail about the lease contract or Nueva, and no other capitol official could say who she is. The governor has been avoiding reporters since October.
