Money-Go-Round by Victor C. Agustin
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Hotel magnate loses Boracay
land battle vs peasant settler
He may have escaped the wrath of Odette, but hotel magnate Henry Chusuey last month suffered damage much worse than
what could have been inflicted by the super typhoon.
The owner of the nine-Henann Regency chain instead lost his claim to a 2.3-hectare beachfront property adjoining his flagship hotel in Boracay.
In a decision released before Christmas, the Supreme Court nullified as fraudulent the 1996 and 2003 sale of the two adjoining lots to the Henann Regency Resort & Spa.
According to court records, the Henann Group acquired the disputed property through their agent, the late pioneering hotelier in the island, Steven Tajanlangit.
The disputed 2.3-hectare land is part of a nine-hectare inheritance of an extended Boracay family, whose greater half had
already been acquired by Chusuey to build his first hotel in the island paradise, the Henann Regency Resort.
According to court records, the sale of the 2.3-hectare unravelled after the other siblings later admitted having received no
promised sale proceeds after executing a waiver on the sale of the disputed property, which they later admitted in court
belonged to their brother, Antonio Pelayo.
On the other hand, the sister who had been dealing with Tajanlangit "asserted that what she sold to (the Henann Group) was her
own land, albeit undervalued in the Deed [of Sale]," noted the ponente, Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa.
The sister, Gloria Pelayo, "claimed that this sale was subject of a (civil) suit which she filed against (the Henann Group) for the
latter's failure to fully pay the agreed purchase price of [P12,000,000.00] and which they subsequently settled amicably,"
Caguioa said.
For its part, the Henann Group maintained "that it is entitled to reimbursement for the purchase price it paid to Gloria in the
event the case would be adjudged in favor of Antonio."
The Henann Group was represented initially by Treñas & Rubias Law Offices (Treñas referring to now Iloilo City Mayor Jerry
Treñas) and later by the blue-chip Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & Delos Angeles.
Now in his 70s and overjoyed that his bucolic farm inheritance is now worth hundreds of million, Antonio Pelayo was
represented by Dennis Manzanal, a graduate of Quiapo's finest law school, MLQU.
The case decided unanimously by the First Division, chaired by no less than Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo.