THE Supreme Court has upheld the 1988 sale to taipan Henry Sy of the contested Baguio property on which the SM City mall now stands.

But, at the same time, the high tribunal’s Third Division ruled that the former lot owner, Resort Hotels Corp. of Marcos crony Rodolfo Cuenca, still needed to settle the P114-million loan obligation outstanding in 1984, plus 12 percent yearly interest, with the Development Bank of the Philippines, and despite the state bank having already foreclosed on and sold the property in 1988.

Cuenca partially won the case with the Supreme Court, which discharged him as “personally and solidarily liable” for his company’s loan with the DBP.

In addition, the high court, in the same Dec. 23, 2009 decision, ordered the DBP to deduct a yet undermined fire insurance proceeds, plus 12-percent interest a year, that the bank had collected after the Cuenca-owned Pines Hotel on the contested property burned down in 1984.

The Pines Hotel aside, Resort Hotels also used to own the Taal Vista Lodge in Tagaytay and the Hotel Mindanao in Cagayan de Oro until the DBP foreclosed on them alongside with the Baguio hotel.

Cuenca, who by that time had had a falling-out with the late president, tried but failed to stop the DBP from foreclosing on the properties, a civil case that dragged on for 25 years but culminated in last month’s decision.

Despite the court case, the DBP proceeded with the 1988 auction, holding the buyer, which turned out to be the SM Group, free of any civil and criminal liabilities that might be claimed by Cuenca and his company.