(Last of two parts) AFTER partnering in several business projects, Datem Inc. and Megaworld Corp. had a falling out and are now locked in what is expected to be a bitter court battle.

Datem asked a Quezon City Regional Trial Court to order Megaworld to settle P873.234 million in unpaid dues.

In its suit, the construction firm says that the real estate conglomerate has been resorting to fraud in avoiding paying the amount.

Last November 16, Judge Rochelle Yvette Galano of the Quezon City court issued the writ of preliminary attachment (WPA) freezing Megaworld’s assets in several banks while the case is being tried.

Explaining her ruling, Galano said: “While ‘fraud’ cannot be presumed, it need not be proved by direct evidence but can well be inferred from attendant circumstances.” The judge gave Megaworld 30

days to reply to the charge. (The court lifted the freeze order on Nov. 24, 2023.)

Andrew Tan, Megaworld president, called Datem’s allegations of fraud “ridiculous and absurd.”

The case has attracted national attention, as Megaworld is one of the country’s corporate giants, with a business reach that encompasses not only realty development but wine and liquor manufacture, major casino and resort operations, restaurants, fast food chains, and other enterprises as well.

According to Forbes Magazine, Andrew Tan is the fourth richest man in the Philippines, with a net worth of $2 billion or P110.98 billion.

Megaworld alone is worth P14 billion.

A spokesman for the conglomerate said it was taken aback by the freeze order because it had been trying its best to settle its dues with Datem and just needed more time.

At the start, Megaworld and Datem seemed a perfect match, teaming up on multimillion realty development projects.

But it wasn’t long before the partnership began to fray. Megaworld began to express concern that it was losing money because Datem was not hitting completion targets. It came to the point that Megaworld made sure the contracts with Datem indicated the completion dates, not just for the entire project overall but for every project component.

The partnership fell apart in 2022 after Megaworld decided to drop Datem as contractor for one project and brought in another firm.

Datem went to court to demand that Megaworld pay up for the projects it has finished.

In a ruling dated November 24. Judge Galano lifted the freeze order on the assets of Megaworld after the firm posted a counterbond as security for the payment of claims being sought by Datem.

While Datem welcome the counterbond Megaworld posted, it said it has “no bearing” on the suit it has filed.

The court battle continues.