Something seems wrong

The other day, we drove thru the South Reclamation Project, dubbed South Real Properties by His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña. Before entering its gates, not far from City Hall, I glimpsed at a headline of a local daily. It invited my attention because not every one hereabout has the nerve to challenge our city mayor, which that headline projected. I have yet to come across a person brave enough to hurl any form a challenge at his honor. So, we pulled over and I got my paper.

Lo and behold, the news was all about the SRP and we were traveling on a part of it, the South Coastal Road. What a coincidence! Reading the report, I realized what was the dare about. Barangay Tinago Kagawad Joel Garganera, did not ask the mayor to an OK Corral kind of a gun duel. In his usual florid style, the former barangay captain challenged our mayor to make true his many previous pronouncements that sales of parts of the SRP were forthcoming or in failing, resign.

Kagawad Garganera's call did not appear to be simply rhetoric. He wanted to state a fact and end it with an exclamation point. The barangay councilman was emphatic in saying that Mayor Osmena, burdened our people with a huge debt to put up the south reclamation area, but, sadly, he was ill equipped to solve it. For several years now, that reclaimed land has remained idle, and the mayor's many prior claims of pending sales were hollow. Today, indeed, the SRP is a vast expanse of emptiness.

That was not all. The "challenge" egged me to explore more. So, after returning home, I decided to view the other reclamation areas.

For ordinary guys like me, cruising along the reclaimed areas of Mandaue and Cebu cities is both recreational and educational. This is specially so at night when traffic is very light. It is recreational because the cool sea breeze somehow massages our bodies tensed by daily attempts to eke out a living. There is also a distinct air from Mactan channel that, for inexplicable reasons, recharges our sagging energies.

Education is also a part of such a leisurely cruise. We learn that there are a number of economic enterprises going on in the Mandaue City Reclamation as well as in the Cebu City North Reclamation Area. These are represented by the rise of buildings along the main highway linking these two cities many of which are in different attractive hues.

Educationally speaking, I am disturbed by some contrasts between these two reclamations. They are many years apart. Cebu City's north reclamation area was completed sometime in 1964 yet. I do remember that in 1988 or twenty years ago, Mayor Osmeña, then campaigning to be our mayor for the first time, promised to make alive the north reclamation and turn vacant and empty lots into centers of unprecedented economic activities. If only the mayor put substance to his promises, there would have been no more colonies of squatters there.

On the other hand, the Mandaue City reclamation was accomplished a little over a decade ago, thirty years behind that of Cebu City's. But, judging from the emergence of more constructions there, both completed and undergoing, there seems to be a pattern for businessmen to favor it over that of our own.

My observations on these three reclamation projects led me to ask why did Kagawad Garganera issue that challenge? Did he want to tell us that there was something wrong in the way Mayor Osmeña faced prospective investors but only avoided having to mention the details? For instance, price wise, the lots at the SRP are announced at a bargain price of P8,000.00 per square meter to Mandaue's P18,000.00 per square meter on the minimum. In fact, Cebu City sold its city hall block to the Robinson's group for a lower amount. But, why would businessmen appear to compete for every square meter in the Mandaue Reclamation and yet refuse to consider putting up their operations at either the Cebu City North or South reclamation areas. It frightens me to find out what Garganera probably knew. As it is, I can only sense that there is something wrong more than what seems to show.

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