By HENRY EMPEÑO | March 22, 2026

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium, Inc. (SBMEI), operator of the largest tourism complex in this freeport, will sell by public auction P32.5-million worth of shares of stock left unpaid by JV China, Inc., an investment firm based in St. Petersburg, Florida.

SBMEI President and CEO Robert Ianne Gonzaga said the company has scheduled this Wednesday, March 25, a delinquency sale of shares of the firm headed by former SBMEI Chairman and CEO Timothy Desmond.

“JV China, which has a substantial stake in SBMEI and has been a shareholder of record for decades, has failed to pay its outstanding stock subscriptions amounting to P32.5 million,” Gonzaga said. “Despite repeated demands, it has not delivered payment,” he added.

Gonzaga said the SBMEI will sell JV China’s stocks by public auction in accordance with the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 11232).

“Under the law, the shares will be auctioned to the highest bidder willing to pay the full amount of subscription liability, plus accrued interest and costs,” the company official said.

The sale of JV China’s unpaid shares is the latest move in SBMEI’s resolution of shareholder issues that Gonzaga admitted “had cast a shadow over the firm’s balance sheet and its ability to attract fresh capital.”

SBMEI, incorporated in 2001, now 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.

Just the other week, SBMEI concluded a debt-for-equity swap with the British Virgin Islands-based investor firm HS Equities, Ltd., finally settling a P239.56-million investment claim after two decades of dispute.

Gonzaga said HS Equities has now been identified “as a party with the right to apply a portion of its settlement toward a winning bid at the auction” should it choose to participate in the bidding.

SBMEI’s legal issue with investors arose in 2013 when HS Equities President Virginia Dio accused then SBMEI Chairman and CEO Timothy Desmond of defrauding her and HS Equities of a total of $2.15 million infused in 2002 for the development of SBMEI’s marine theme park project.

For this, Desmond was convicted of fraud in June 2020 and was jailed at the Olongapo City District Jail.

The Barredo Law Office in Olongapo, however, claimed Desmond was erroneously released upon completion of sentence in November 2025, as he was not transferred to the custody of the Bureau of Immigration for a final deportation order issued in 2016.

Gonzaga said that upon Desmond’s release, the latter “has mounted what the SBMEI board characterizes as an unlawful campaign to reassert control over the company.” He said the latter tried to convene an illegal stockholders’ meeting at the Subic Freeport last February, which the incumbent SBMEI board voided.

Gonzaga said that while the former CEO holds a larger interest through JV China, “he does not represent JVC and is locked in litigation in Florida against other JVC shareholders.”

Dio, for her part, said in a statement that JV China’s shares were “fraudulently acquired in the first place.”

“Desmond did everything in his power to siphon funds while he was in charge, and I will stop at nothing to pursue everyone connected with this fraud,” Dio asserted. “They have done untold damage to SBMEI and its stockholders and stakeholders alike.”

Florida’s Division of Corporations listed JV China’s status as “active” as of February 2026.

Federal court records also indicated that a case centering on contract dispute has been filed against the company in 2021 by, among others, Gail Laule and Eric Montandon, who currently sit in the BMEI Board as company directors. ▲