Pag chure mo oi!

The unsavory claim that news organizations always project negative, mostly sensationalized, stories in order to sell was belied few days ago by a report that excited me no end. To me, there could be no more positive a report than the item about the announcement made by the Cebu Investment Promotion Center (I hope I got this correctly from the initial CIPC) that there were (and it should be are) at least three big corporations about to locate at the South Real Properties, Cebu City’s own south reclamation area and more to follow.

Firstly, I cannot be happier that finally CIPC has proven its value as marketing outfit. This firm, apparently organized upon the behest of our leaders for the ostensible purpose of selling Cebu, receives millions of pesos in dole-outs from the city government annually. To be sure, now and then, it would come with claims of having obtained investments for the city as a feeble attempt to justify the grant. We had to take its report, no matter how nebulous, face value because there was absolutely no way of verifying such claims. I felt our government was just made a milking cow by some players with powerful political connections. At the very least, I thought that the city, by continuing to fund the CIPC, was on the losing side of the equation. Well, the same cannot, in all probability, be said now, if its projection shall come to fruition. Again, thanks CIPC.

Secondly, it is about time that the city finds a reprieve from its fiscal burden of paying an onerous loan obligation. The sale of portions of the SRP can, certainly, free large portions of the city budget from debt servicing. With billions of pesos estimated to come to the coffers of the city as sales proceeds of parts of the SRP, many basic services can now be improved.

I wanted to be sure though, that what I read was true or capable of validation. Charge it to my cautious nature to ask before I shoot, so to speak. To recall, during the campaign period for the May 2007 polls, His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña, also announced that the city was about to conclude sales of the SRP lots. I use the word “also” because there were prior similar announcements. Then, in December 2007, he was more graphic in the claim that the city was on the verge of selling SRP lots. By this account, it would come by the end of the month. Repeat, that was December 2007. He even wanted the people from the news organizations to distance from the transaction. He meant that we should not poke our nose around the ongoing negotiations because he was at such critical stage of the deal. Because we hoped the mayor would succeed, for our sake, we shut our mouth and literally swept the principle of transparency under the rugs.

Then, it dawned on me that the pronouncements of the CIPC and the office of the mayor were, like this column, off tangent. The mayor was speaking of consummating sales by the end of the year 2008 claimed that by the middle part of this year 2008, three large corporations would have bought valuable lots in the SRP. They were not synchronized with each other.

Despite the obvious discrepancy of these claims, I am not prepared to conclude that either the mayor or the CIPC is peddling lies. That’s neither developmental nor positive news. Like opposing sides taken by lawyers in a litigation, each must be telling us his version of truth. Or who knows, the announcement made by CIPC is mainly a continuation of the claims made by the mayor last year? To clear the air of doubt caused by these statements, may I borrow the language of the young and say unto the mayor and the CIPC pag chure mo oi!

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