Justice officials have recommended the cancellation of Hong Kong-based Landing International’s lease contract with the Philippine government, backing President Rodrigo Duterte’s claim that the deal was “flawed.”

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque announced last Friday that the Justice department, in its report submitted to the Philippine president, had “characterized the contract as being void ab initio [from the beginning].”

Citing Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra, Roque said, “The contract of Landing with Nayong Pilipino is a Build-Operate-Transfer [BOT] contract disguised as a lease contract. Because it is a BOT project, it should have complied with the BOT law including public bidding.”

Roque said the Justice department’s position “rebuts the public advertisement paid for by former officials of the Nayong Pilipino,” whose open letter defending the legality of the lease was printed in several newspapers last week.