A peak at the city/province land deal

In a very recent news story that deserved its headline status, the Honorable Tomas R. Osmeña, Cebu City South District Representative, blamed his soured relations with the Honorable Provincial Governor, Gwendolyn F. Garcia, on His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama. According to the former mayor, it was the incumbent city executive who botched up the real estate transaction between the city and the province resulting in the falling out of their otherwise amiable relations.

Let us, once again, attempt to examine that aborted deal from the bits and pieces of information carried by news media. As reported, the city government was supposed to cede to the province one half hectare of its land at the South Road Properties in exchange of the vast land holdings belonging to the provincial government but situated within the city. So, on one hand, there is a contiguous and compact territory, located at the SRP, with an area of five thousand (5,000) square meters, owned by the city and free of any occupants, while, on the other hand, there are several hectares of province owned lots scattered in many barangays within the city and large portions of which are occupied by settlers.

Here is one angle.

When the barter was proposed, the going rate of SRP lots was pegged at a high of ten thousand pesos per square meter. Using that valuation, the city was thus prepared to part away with a land valued at fifty million pesos. Of course, the SRP lot is without settlers so that the fifty million-peso value is, to use an accepted real estate term, net, understand that the total land area of province owned lots is about fifty hectares. My source says that almost one third of this land area is fully paid by the beneficiaries. So, the remainder is some thirty hectares. Even if we give the lowest valuation of two thousand pesos per square meter, the estimated value of the land is six hundred million pesos (P 600,000,000.00).

Now, we assume that only twenty five percent of the province’s land maybe recoverable. With the swap completed, it is that the city can effect the recovery. If that is valid, we are talking here of one hundred fifty million pesos.

From this angle, I dare say that had the deal pushed thru, the city was poised to earn a financial windfall. The claim that the projected land swap was aimed at protecting the interests of the settlers was more of a cover than its avowed social consideration.

Here is another angle.

Gov. Garcia probably initially entertained the thought of giving the chance to the settlers to realize their dreams of owning the land where their houses have been built. At the same time, by ceding the land to the city, she was to have unloaded an inherited complex social situation because she must be aware that addressing the needs of people living within its properties was going to tell heavily on her administration.

The alleged vitriolic comment of Mayor Rama that supposedly became hindrance to the deal gave her the chance to review her position. She must have directed her people to do some pencil pushing of their own and realized that her administration was financially disadvantaged by the planned land swap. She thus found the glitch to be an opportunity to rectify an impending error. After all, hers was the responsibility to protect the interest of the province.

Here is still another angle.

The SRP was funded by a loan. All tax paying city residents paid for it. We still do. Slicing a portion of it to give to the province is akin to slicing a part of our money for the benefit of a specific group of people – the settlers. The general mass will not stand to benefit because the province owned land, once ceded to the city, will be given to the settlers and therefore will continue to be occupied by them. 

No, I do not want to sound greedy. I am just apprehensive that this act may be taken as some kind of a precedent. It will probably encourage people to settle in vacant lands, not their own, in the expectation that the city will, sooner than later, reward them with ownership.

If ever the stalled land swap gets revisited, I hope that all parties act with transparency by telling us everything there is to be told. That way, we do not have to speculate.