DPWH, OBO and the Camia Café & Resto

In a rare twist of events that spells trouble for the minions of Mayor Michael Rama in the Office of the Building Official, I heard that Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson ordered the OBO of Cebu City to reinstate the building permit and fencing permit of a restaurant it shut down five months ago. This restaurant is really just a coffee house, which used to be the Alejandro's Restaurant, which Mayor Michael Rama destroyed on the guise of widening the Don Jose Avila (formerly Camias Street) road.

Mayor Rama apparently destroyed the Alejandro's Restaurant, a 20-year-old restaurant that served great Crispy Pata and Tortang Talong that was the favorite of then Mayor Tomas Osmeña. But Mayor Mike Rama succeeded in destroying Alejandro's Restaurant because part of it was sitting on the sidewalk. Yet there are so many establishments in Cebu that do not even have a sidewalk, but why hasn't Mayor Rama done something about this?

A case in point is Escario Street, which, by the way, is a national road. As you come from the Provincial Capitol and past the Maxwell Hotel to Mini-Stop near the Capitol Parish, you will notice that Mayor Rama's sidewalk project suddenly stopped as in-between these two buildings;  there really is no sidewalk to speak of. But because the owner of the lot behind Alejandro's is a close friend of Mayor Rama, he obliged him and removed Alejandro's, which actually stands on a thin property fronting Mayor Rama's friend.

So with Alejandro's Restaurant destroyed, Alexis Yap who runs the place came to us and moved his restaurant to the Century Plaza Complex. I asked Alexis why he didn't fight to keep his restaurant? He merely told me that "You cannot fight City Hall." Enter Mr. Adrian Lee, who bought the property from the owners of the land where Alejandro's stood who are now in the US. He builds his coffee shop and gets all the required permits. But when Mayor Rama learned that this had happened, he literally ordered the new building demolished. 

Then City Engineer Jose Marie Poblete, a lawyer who is OIC Building Official of Cebu City came up with a new resolution withdrawing the permits they originally gave to Adrian Lee. But worse of all, of the 12-man committee only three attended the meeting that revoked that permit and they stamped it as "unanimous." That in my book was sheer deception of the highest order. Hence, Mr. Adrian Lee filed criminal charges against Mayor Rama and Atty. Poblete in a case that I personally warned Mayor Rama that could get him in hot water or even in jail after his term as mayor is over.

So this new order from the DPWH Sec. Singson validates our articles that Mayor Rama and Atty. Poblete erred in withdrawing the permits for Camia Street Café and Resto owned by Adrian Lee simply because they never gave Mr. Lee any prior notice or conduct an administrative hearing on his case. But the whole damn truth is… Mayor Rama was doing his "friend" a favor to the point of their violating our laws.

Mayor Rama should have realized that a friend who asks him a favor to violate our laws isn't a good friend. Imagine they pretended to widen Don Jose Avila St. when in truth this was never even budgeted for the simple reason that there really is no real reason to widen this already wide street!  At this point, Mayor Rama cannot fault me for not giving him fair warning about the problems he could encounter in the future.

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Yesterday the Cebu media was treated to a sumptuous lunch at the newly refurbished Golden Cowrie Restaurant along Salinas Drive once owned by Mrs. Tina Ebrada and bought by the Kokseng family. As part of its transformation, the front part of Golden Cowrie was named "Salinas" which pertained to salt, which as chefs and cooks all over the world know is a major ingredient without which your food is tasteless.

As I entered "Salinas" the Cebu media was there in full force and so too with the Kokseng family led by Raymond, Earl, Jojo, and Sonny Kokseng. These guys are old schoolmates of mine from the USC Boys High School and they asked me to sit down with them on their table and both Raymond and Jojo started putting dishes on my plate.

Their renovation was total and complete, the restaurant really looked spanking new. But more importantly, the Kokseng family who operates not only Golden Cowrie but also Hukad, which now has 22 branches nationwide and in the newly opened SM Seaside City also presented the Cebu media its new menus. For instance they now have croquettes my favorite in corn or in eggplant and it is really delicious. They now have Dalupapa, which is not an easy dish to serve and they have it there. But what caught my eye was their sliced huge Bone Marrow served on a platter and the Pigs Ear dish that you can only get in Golden Cowrie and Salinas. Kudos to the Kokseng Family!

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