On access road Rama tells Ayala: Be “sober”

CEBU, Philippines- Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama tells Ayala Group to be “sober” on road access issues with Filinvest Land Inc.  in Barangay Apas.

“I would like to be very clear and I don’t want to be confronting whoever, they just have to listen to be sober. Ayala has to be sober. FLI and the provincial government should be also into talking. If they put the people of the City of Cebu into trouble, traffic augmented, problems mounted, the mayor of Cebu would not be closing his eyes,” Rama said.

FLI sought help from the provincial government and the city government after the Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corp allegedly refused to grant access to FLI at W. Geonzon St., even if the street is reportedly a public thoroughfare, causing for the delay of the latter’s P5-billion business process outsourcing complex.

Lawyer Jeanette Japzon, corporate manager of Cebu Holdings Inc., claimed that the street is duly titled under CPVDC contrary to the Barangay Apas resolution confirming W. Geonzon St. as a public road, citing the declaration of the Department of  Finance Local Board of Assessment Appeals last June 2007 that the street is exempted from payment of real property taxes since 2006.

Apas Barangay Captain Ramil Ayuman said even before the IT Park was developed, the street has served as the main access for residents of Sitio San Miguel and neighboring sitios in the barangay.

“We don’t have to be talking about title or not. Let’s have to be sober, let’s be fair and let’s think about love. If I knew it’s going to be a problem, then I should not have transferred the jail,” Rama said.

In an interview, Japzon clarified that CPVDC did not bar the public to pass on the said street, but, pointing out that Ayala group needs to maintain boundary for the security of its investors.

“By mere tolerance, we are not preventing the public from traversing the existing W. Geonzon St. What Cebu I.T. Park investors and locators are concerned about is breaching our boundary to create a new access. It is unfortunate that the focus is on Geonzon road when there are at least two other access points to the project which is outside the I.T. Park, including Salinas Drive,” she said.

“We need to enforce our boundaries not only for business and security purposes, but to comply with our PEZA certification as well, which is one of the reasons for investors to come to Cebu and locate in Cebu I.T. Park,” she added.

Japzon stood firm that CPVDC holds ownership to the road with a lot title.

FLI first vice president Tristan Las Marias pointed out that CPVDC’s recent statement is “worrisome.”

“It is very frightening for the constituents of Barangay Apas that after CPVDC was exempted from paying P26 million for the past nine years, the company is now saying that Geonzon Street is only open to the public because CPVDC merely tolerates it and that they will close it from the use of the public anytime,” Las Marias said.

“We believe that the hard working officials of Barangay Apas felt duty-bound to protect their constituents and ensure that they have free and unhampered access to Geonzon Street and that it will not be subject to the whim of CPVDC who has, in fact, enjoyed and is still enjoying real property tax exemption privileges for the public use of Geonzon Street,” Las Marias added.

He pointed out that since 2006 until now, CPVDC did not pay real property taxes for Geonzon Street amounting to about P24 million or P2.6 million per year, of real property tax because of the exemption.

The Capitol’s joint venture with FLI involves a 1.2-hectare property for the construction of four BPO towers, which the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center and the Center for the Ultimate Rehabilitation of Drug Dependents used to stand.

Moreover, Rama said the city needs the street to establish a parallel road in Salinas Drive to address heavy traffic at the area.

“I need to have a parallel road in Salinas. And if we will have certain problems in Banilad-Talamban, it would be a problem if there will only be one access,” he said.

“They all are my friends. Ayala is my friend, FLI is our partner, and the Province of Cebu is a fellow LGU, but what matters to the mayor is what is good for the city. It’s good for the city to have that road to be an access. That thoroughfare needed for purposes addressing traffic management in the city. If it will take us to go to court then we will have to go to court. But why do we have to go to court when we can talk what really is the problem?” he added.

Rama said he is not afraid to end ties with the city’s economic partners if “oppression and selfishness” is prevalent. He believes FLI joint venture project may spur employment opportunities for Cebu’s constituency and would resolve if not lessen the unemployment dilemma in the metropolis.

“I don’t want anyone to be threatening especially when it affects traffic.  The mayor’s office is always ready to cut ties if oppression will prevail…friendship will end when general welfare demands and friendship should end if unreasonableness is being projected. Friendship will end if selfishness will reign. I don’t want to create enemies… promoting animosity and conflict,” he stressed.  —/FPL) (FREEMAN)