Mayor with a real estate background

As a kind of practical living, I always try to look at things in their positive perspective. Believe me, it is really good practice. Some words that I hear may be uttered negatively or some actions that I see may be done with clearly negative designs, but still I always endeavor to find their good sides.

 That practice was the reason why I was still glad to read the criticism of the honorable Congressman Tomas R. Osmeña, on the plan of His Honor Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama to sell some portions of the South Road Properties. The representative started with a very harsh, perhaps misplaced, though clearly negative premise. He said that the mayor does not know anything about real estate or words to that effect and because of which, the mayor’s plan was, to him, flawed.

 What was negative in that comment by the lawmaker? Let us consider at least two. Firstly, the congressman assumed that only a person with real estate background can decide when is a good time to sell a piece of real property. The mayor, who is a lawyer, does not have that competence! For another, he concluded that the city should sell the SRP only when the value shall have gone higher. The congressman found able support in the utterance of the vice mayor who said, in a rather more specific term, that the city should sell these lots after three years.

 Having made those observations, what positive things did I attach to the negative comment of the lawmaker from the south district?

 1. Rep. Osmeña, now seems to acknowledge that for someone to make correct decisions, he must firstly have appropriate training on the subject. I truly believe in this reasoning. The legislator must be a changed personality because this was not his outlook years back. I recall that sometime ago, when he was still our mayor, he appointed to a sensitive executive office a certain Mr. Jun Cugay. The available records of Mr. Cugay did not show anything that he was competent to decide on important executive matters. If I remember correctly, what I saw was that he did not even finish high school.

 2. When the former mayor was still contemplating about running for the south congressional seat, he poured millions public funds for the south and practically zero for the north. I could not understand that direction although my lawyer’s instincts tended to entertain the thought that he was playing politics using people’s money. Since that was a negative view, I did not take it seriously. But, given his criticism against the sitting city chief executive, my earlier inability to discern why the south district representative did that has found a plausible explanation. It must be his real estate background that prompted him conceive of all possible projects for the south and fund them while he spent nary a centavo for the north.

 3. If Mayor Rama’s absence of any real estate training led him to plan something that his predecessor assailed, although this, to me, really is a case of non-sequitur, there is a simple, equally childish, solution. Let the mayor clearly define the policy direction that he needs to generate funds for certain projects as well as to open employment opportunities. Then, he can ask someone with such real estate background to study further the plan and implement it.

Really, no matter how I attempt to entertain a positive view on the criticism aired by the former mayor, the specifics spelled out by the vice mayor founds in me source of apprehension. If the lots at the South Real Properties are best sold after three years, then the obvious possibility is that a mayor with a real estate background(?) can employ all tactics of real estate deals, including jacking up real estate broker’s commission, as he sells the SRP. That is appalling!