Houseowner near Fort San Pedro asks City Hall to pay up

CEBU, Philippines - The owner of a house beside the famous Fort San Pedro in Barangay San Roque that was partly destroyed upon the order of Mayor Michael Rama is now asking the mayor to pay her and to repair the damaged portion of her house.

Rama wants the City to buy the 87-square meter lot owned by Amelita Sola so that it can be used as a passage way to link the area near the existing Cebu City Post Office to the back portion of the old Spanish Fort.

Sola is willing to sell part of her properties to the City, but she is now complaining because the City has not made true its promise to immediately fix the damage portion of her house.

According to Sola, she signed a Letter of Consent last May 24, 2012 allowing the City to start implementing the project within the two-meter area from the wall of Fort San Pedro after the mayor sent her a letter last June 11 promising her that they will fix the portion affected by the demolition.

Sola narrated that last June 4, City Hall personnel started demolishing portions of her house like the kitchen, bathroom and a bedroom.

“My family are greatly affected both physically and psychologically especially my grandchild whose right to a home and safe environment are greatly violated,” Sola said in a letter to the mayor.

Records showed that Councilor Jose Daluz III already asked his fellow city legislators to allow the mayor to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Sola for the acquisition of such property in line with the City’s beautification program of public plazas.

The City Legal Office already reviewed the draft MOA and found nothing illegal in the agreement.

Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, who chairs the City Council’s committee on budget and finance, explained that while the committee sees the urgency of the matter, she wants it to be reviewed further because of some inconsistencies.

Osmeña observed that the City Appraisal Committee chaired by City Assessor Eustaquio Cesa on January 25, 2012 appraised the value of the lot at P8,000 per square meter.

According to Osmeña, the total cost of the lots to be purchased by the City is only P696,000 and not P2,039,500 as what the proposed MOA prepared by Daluz states. If the City will pay the P2,039,500 as what is mentioned in the proposed MOA, the cost of the lot would be P23,442 per square meter.

In today’s regular session of the City Council, Osmeña is set to ask the Office of the Mayor to speed up the restoration of the affected structures within the Sola property as what the mayor promised in her letter to the lot owner.

Osmeña said the City Council will not oppose if Rama wishes to beautify the Fort San Pedro, but they also want to see to it that the mayor will not be involved in transactions that are disadvantageous to the City. – (FREEMAN)