Megaworld plans to sue contractor

MEGAWORLD CORP. on Sunday said it plans to sue one of its contractors due to additional costs from alleged delays in some of its projects.

Megaworld said it had appointed top law firm, ACCRALAW, to pursue the criminal and civil complaints against its contractor DATEM, Inc.

“We are filing cases against them, and our internal and external legal teams are now on top of it,” Kevin Andrew L. Tan, Alliance Global Group, Inc. (AGI) chief executive officer, said in a statement. AGI is the listed parent firm of Megaworld.

Mr. Tan also maintained the company “has not evaded any substantial claim for payments from DATEM.”

A Quezon City regional trial court last week issued an order freezing some Megaworld projects as DATEM sought to collect P873 million in what it said were unpaid dues, the listed property company said in a statement.

On Friday, Megaworld said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange it had yet to receive the notices of garnishment that the court had served on its banks.

“Megaworld is prepared to immediately avail of remedies to lift the writ of preliminary attachment (WPA) and any such notices of garnishment, including by immediately posting a counter-bond, without prejudice to availing other remedies to challenge the propriety of the said WPA,” the company said.

The writ and notices of garnishment would not stop any of Megaworld’s business operations, it told the local bourse.

DATEM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave