Iligan seeks revival of steel plant

By Nora Soriño,
Iligan City Bureau Chief

ILIGAN City – The city is now taking concrete and definite steps to revive the National Steel Corporation.

Atty. Voltaire Rovira, city legal officer yesterday said that the National Steel Corporation Working Group had met Thursday and they had discussed the matter.

Among the officials and concerned persons in attendance together with city mayor Celso Regencia himself with Vice Mayor Jemar Vera Cruz, Councilor Noli Pardillo, City Treasurer Louella Maybituin, and Engr. Bert Oller.

When asked how that would it be possible to revive the said steel plant when it carries with it so many concerns and encumbrances like the many cases in courts vs. the owners, he said that in the event the city now owns it, the problems with the courts will not come with it.

He said that previous operator; the Global Steel will be the one to face them.

The said company was the last to operate it, from 2004 to 2010.

He said that the city has a claim on the said plant on account of the tax delinquency of the plant which remains unpaid up to the present.

To note, NSC owes the city over 4 billion pesos in unpaid real property taxes.

He likened the matter to some pawned items that are unredeemed and sold at public auction. The buyer, he said adding that the new owner of the said item does not have to deal with the problems of the previous owner.

Among the steps he said, are publication and then they will proceed with the auction sale. When the ownership of the plant passes on to the city through said processes, they hope that investors would now look at the plant with interest.

He added he hopes that the City Council too would pass some resolutions that would be favorable to such moves.

Meanwhile, Engr. Bert Oller, a member of the National Steel Corporation Working Group over the weekend said. It is still very possible that the National Steel Corporation can be rehabilitated even with the reported theft on the equipment and other items in the area.

He then proceeded to outline the broad steps to be taken on said goal of the NSCWG which is to rehab said steel plant which was shuttered in 1999, re-operated in 2004 and shut down again in 2010 with each operations, by different owners.

Oller said that when ownership of said plant passes on to the city and there will be  new investors willing and financially capable of operating the plant, the first step towards rehabilitating it would be to make an inventory of the equipment and other assets of the plant still existing there.

To recall there were reports of thievery after it was shuttered in 2010. Equipment and other items like wires and other items just disappeared from the plant.

The engineer said that after said inventory, they can come up with a “parts list” and then proceed with procuring and even assembling these parts.

Earlier, Atty. Voltaire Rovira,  city legal officer and another member of the NSCWG said that even when there was “nothing’ on the NSC grounds to begin with, NSC rose and was operating for many years, how much more today when there still are equipment left even as there is private wharf there too.

To recall, in 1999, NSC was shut down, falling under the weight of its financial debt burden. It was then owned by ten banks led by the Philippine National Bank  as a result of the owners’ inability to pay the loans they had owed the banks even as the city claimed ownership too due to its failure to pay real property taxes due it.

The city, to note had taken steps for its rehab, beginning with the publication of notices of delinquency, after which it will now auction it preparatory to inviting investors for its rehab. Rovira said that even if it is tangled with so many court cases involving the previous operators, which will not affect the new ownership. Thus, it can proceed with its operation plans.