By HENRY EMPEÑO | March 19, 2026

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium, Inc. (SBMEI), operator of popular tourism attractions here, has settled a P239.56-million investment claim by a venture company, finally ending a two-decades old dispute that cast a shadow over the largest tourism establishment in this Freeport.

SBMEI President and CEO Robert Ianne Gonzaga said on Wednesday that his firm has arrived at a compromise agreement with HS Equities, Ltd. for the full conversion of the latter’s multi-million investment claim into SBMEI shares.

Gonzaga and HS Equities President Virginia Dio signed the agreement on March 13, following the approval of the settlement plan by the incumbent SBMEI Board of Directors in a special board meeting last February 27.

“All five incumbent directors voted in favor of the settlement: Chairperson Susan L. Dudley, Directors Eric Montandon, Gail Laule, and Terry Nichoson and myself as President and CEO,” Gonzaga told BusinessMirror. “Nobody dissented nor abstained during voting,” he said.

SBMEI, incorporated in 2001, operates the Ocean Adventure marine theme park, Camayan Beach Resort, Adventure Beach Waterpark, and Adventure Cove, all located in a sprawling complex at Ilanin Forest West here.

Gonzaga, who became SBMEI’s first Filipino CEO in 2017, said the SBMEI-HS Equities deal is another turning point in the history of the firm, which had hurdled the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic to its four properties, and renegotiated a more supportive relationship with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) under his watch.

“What was done to Ms. Dio should never have happened. She believed in this company before most of us were even part of it. We owed her this, and now we have settled what we owed her,” Gonzaga said.

The debt-for-equity swap ended an acrimonious legal battle that bedeviled the SBMEI since 2002 when HS Equities, an investment firm registered in the British Virgin Islands, made its original investment of US$2.15 million to infuse funds for the development and operation of the Subic marine theme park.

In 2013, Dio accused then SBMEI Chairman and CEO Timothy Desmond of defrauding her and HS Equities of $1.15 million and $1 million, respectively, for the marine park project.

Dio’s feud with Desmond resurfaced recently when the latter, who was convicted of fraud over his dealings with Dio and jailed thereafter, tried to convene a stockholders’ meeting last month.

Dio slammed the meeting as “illegal and an apparent bid to seize control of the company,” pointing out that Desmond holds only 1.08 percent of the total shares.

Gonzaga said the SBMEI board declared Desmond’s stockholders’ meeting as “void on multiple grounds.”

For her part, Dio said her claims were intended not as a constraint, but a support for the SBMEI.

“I did not come here today to ask for money,” Dio reportedly stated during the signing of the settlement. “My blood and sweat are in this company. I came to make sure the truth comes out and to move the company forward.”

Gonzaga also said the compromise agreement with HS Equities effectively cancelled all contractual agreements with entities connected to SBMEI’s previous leadership. These include Ilanin West Limited, Active Environments Inc., and Stonefly Holdings, which provided specialized services to the SBMEI. ▲