Was it a bluff?

There is a twist to the offer of the Cebu province to contest the unsolicited offer of the Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI), in developing the South Road Properties of Cebu City. This early, it looks that this new development is unflattering to the image of Her Honor, Cebu Provincial Governor Gwendolyn F. Garcia. And what is this twist? This comes in the form of an announcement from the capitol to withdraw (the word should have been withhold) its announced intention to invest in the SRP if the city grants development permit to the "Ciudad".

For a while, the governor sounded like the province was indeed prepared to pour its resources at the SRP. Or so, I was convinced. After all, it had all the good reasons to think of. Friendliness, a very refreshing attitude, was among the imaginable angles. Rather than rubbing on the tight financial fix of the city and provoking some kind of animosity, the province by investing in the SRP could start a warm relation between the two local government units.

Sound investment policy was not far behind. Certainly one of the richest provinces in the country, the provincial leaders were hard pressed to put its money in viable projects that its constituents could enjoy the returns. Thus, in asking that relevant documents be availed to her, referring to the offer submitted by the FLI and the ordinance which should govern all such ventures, and her actually visiting the site for a personal assessment, the lady governor demonstrated the body language of a prudent fund manager making certain that public funds are not endangered.

And then some. The language of Gov. Garcia language challenging the city to keep the real estate transaction public was a sly innuendo that she might have known of something undesirable in the deal. While it was, by mischievous indications a spice, it was in fact, foul baiting! Yet, as it began to unravel, it could be an unwarranted spice and a useless foul bait.

Initially though, the city showed it was not quite ready for the unexpected situation. There was no indication it was forthcoming. No one thought the governor, whose family appears to carry an ongoing verbal tussle on almost every conceivable issue, would do something akin to helping the city generate funds out of the SRP.

Understandably, the city's first reaction was a case of misplaced haughtiness. For instance, suggesting to the province that it should instead create two investment areas similar to the economic zones with one for the southern towns and the other to provide opportunities for the municipalities in the north, city hall indicated an inclination to repudiate the economic proposition of the province.

 Later, out of its initial tentativeness, the city righted its course. What better statement could one get than the city hall's welcoming the idea of the province as long as it should be able to quantify its pronouncements starting with an authority for the governor from the provincial board and a corresponding monetary deposit to match that of the FLI.

But, just as reports came in that Atty. Victor Maambong, who was obviously also convinced of the plans of Gov. Garcia, succeeded to convince this fellow provincial board members to give an authority to the governor to start the ball rolling officially, capitol revealed this other card which I now call as a twist.

By this recent indication, the noise attending to the purported interest of the province in the SRP was but an apparent bluff with two prongs. Its covert design was either to razzle-dazzle to city to making the provincial investment hassle-free or to pressure city officials to accommodate the province. The money for the SRP was just a bait.

The announcement, released the other day by capitol, which should be taken as a preference a permit for its "Ciudad" investment than pouring money into the SRP, revealed what could be true color of the supposed investment plan. If indeed, the SRP project was used as leverage for the city to issue the permit for the development of the province's Banilad assets, it was likely to back fire. For the province not to be misunderstood or worse suffer the ignominy as a bluffer, its only remaining correct move is to put its money where its mouth is and hope that its SRP venture benefit both the city and the province.

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