Osmeña plans to question Talisay cityhood

CEBU — Cebu City is set to file a case against Talisay City for alleged irregularities in its becoming a chartered city, setting the scenario for a big battle ahead on the South Reclamation Project (SRP).

Although Mayor Tomas Osmeña has yet to make a formal announcement about the lawsuit, sources close to The Freeman said Cebu City would look into the demographics and land area which were used as basis for Talisay’s cityhood.

The municipality first applied for cityhood in 1998 and was eventually granted a charter in 2002.

Talisay City counsel Aurora Econg said she has the supporting documents to show that Talisay’s cityhood application was legal and official.

But with Osmeña’s latest move to keep the SRP, such documents may have to be contested in court.

Jurisdiction issues have since besieged the SRP when Talisay City claimed a 53.44-hectare portion of the project, claiming that it has encroached on the reclaimed land.

Talisay City, however, made the claim after the SRP was completed and ready for sale to investors.

Talisay City wants the portion back, but Cebu City won’t budge and Osmeña has severed sister-city ties with Talisay City if only to keep the entire SRP intact.

Cebu City’s plan to file a suit against Talisay on its alleged "sham cityhood" came as surveyors discovered that a municipal boundary monument — MBM 30 — said to belong to Talisay City, was right inside the SRP.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which conducted the survey, said MBM 30 is located before Km. 10 of the SRP just after the second bridge as one approaches Cebu City from Talisay.

Econg said she wonders why Osmeña is questioning Talisay’s cityhood when the issue is the alleged encroachment of Talisay’s 53.44 hectares on the SRP.

Thus far, the MBM 30 marker is the strongest proof of the encroachment.

The other day, representatives of both cities signed technical descriptions that validated the results of the survey.

Arnold Favillar, of the SRP-Project Monitoring Office, signed in behalf of Cebu City, while geodetic engineer Edgar Batiquin represented Talisay.

Econg said Cebu City must have been panic-stricken when the survey finally established the boundaries of both cities.

"My function is to see to it that I defend the territorial integrity of Talisay City," she said.

Meanwhile, SRP manager Nigel Paul Villarete denied they have sent representatives to sign, much more validate the survey.

He said Osmeña had clear instructions that the survey results had to be presented to and cleared with him first.

The survey results apparently prompted Osmeña to call for an unscheduled meeting with his team of lawyers, councilors and engineers, taking up only one agenda — "a consolidated move" on the SRP.

Among those present in the unscheduled meeting were counsels Evangeline Abatayo and Ralph Sevilla, and councilors Edgardo Labella, Hilario Davide III, Gerardo Carillo, Jocelyn Pesquera and Procopio Fernandez.

Also present were Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who is also a lawyer; councilors Sylvan Jakosalem, Rodrigo Abellanosa and Augustus Pe Jr., and Villarete.

Emerging from the meeting, they refused to talk to reporters. Only Carillo gave a one-liner, saying, "Only the mayor will make the major announcement because it’s an earthshaking announcement." — Freeman News Service