Eco park in QC

Residents want to put up an ecological park on a 3.1 hectare subdivision lot owned by the Quezon City government made controversial by a deal struck between the Mathay administration and an exclusive private school for boys, according to Fourth District Councilor Ariel Inton Jr.

And now that PAREF-Northfield has formally withdrawn from the questioned P1-billion deal to put up a school on the high-end Greenmeadows III property, Inton challenged the subdivision homeowner’s association to carry out its plan to transform the area into the city’s first ever privately-funded ecological park.

"They should join hands with the Quezon City government and the affected communities of Libis, Bagumbayan and Ugong Norte to develop the site into what could be the largest ecological park in the city, if not the entire metropolis," said Inton.

He said as the city government has already wrapped up budget deliberations for the year, it cannot allocate any money to develop the property this year. "But we would want to make this a showcase of how a partnership between the government and the private sector can work for the good of the entire community," he said.

The law reserves space in any subdivision development plan for the development of public parks. The city councilor said the subdivision developer, Ortigas and Company, donated the lot in question to the city government with that purpose in mind.

School authorities wrote Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Valentines’ Day, informing him of their decision to back out of the land deal. In response, the mayor said the gesture has resolved for the city government a very touchy issue, adding that he would want the property to be used in a manner that would be acceptable to all concerned.

Inton said PAREF-Northfield’s withdrawal from the contract averted what could have been a long-drawn out battle in court. He said the 26-member city council was poised to rescind the contract after conducting an investigation on charges that the memorandum of agreement (MOA) the school forged with the Mathay administration was disadvantageous to the city government.

The MOA gave the exclusive school for boys the authority to use the 3.1-hectare city property over a 50-year period rent-free. The MOA also allows the school to mortgage the property or use it as collateral with private banks. In return, the school would give scholarships to 200 disadvantaged children. Inton has said that the deal was anomalous as it was beneficial only to the school. — Romel Bagares