Tomas: City should pay Young Builders

CEBU, Philippines - If the decision was up to Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas R. Osmeña, the Cebu City Government will no longer wait for more time to pay Young Builders Corporation the P6.3-million obligation for the unfinished construction of Carbon Public Market Unit 2.

The Court of Appeals already ruled that the City of Cebu should pay Young Builders Corporation the remaining balance because it was the city that stopped the implementation of the project in 2001.

Osmeña said the city should not wait for this issue to become another Rallos case wherein the City of Cebu did not pay the full amount which ended up reaching about P134 million.

The City, during the time of Osmeña, did not pay the demanded amount of the Young Builders Corporation which the former mayor recalled was P80 million. During the series of court hearings, the amount was reduced to a little over P30 million.

The City already paid P24 million to the Young Builders Corporation during the stint of Osmeña as mayor.  At first, Osmeña’s administration did not pay the private contractor because it could not determine the real cost of their initial project consisting of foundations and posts.

Osmeña said there is no way of measuring how deep the piles are unless you pull these out. They did not follow the proper procedure wherein a worker from the City must supervise  the implementation of a project.

According to Osmeña, Mayor Michael Rama can’t claim that the project was the responsibility of the previous administration, saying that “he can’t say it was made during the previous administration because he was then the vice mayor.”

Osmeña said the City Council may include the amount in the next supplemental budget if the payment will become final and executory because such payment can be considered a statutory obligation.

Meanwhile, the congressman also reacted to Rama’s move in reviewing the transactions and other matters about the South Road Properties (SRP), including the operations of the Bigfoot Entertainment that leased two hectares at the SRP.

Rama earlier said that he wants to find out if there was already a film manufactured at the Bigfoot’s studio at the SRP and if the establishment had generated jobs.

Osmeña said even if Bigfoot has not made a film yet, it already paid a five-year advance rental of P28 million to the City. He said after the 25-year contract and if Bigfoot will no longer renew the contract, the building will already be owned by the city.

He added that Rama is always complaining now about the delayed payment of Filinvest to the City because the city has run out of money.

“They are using the IRA for this year to pay the city’s last year obligations,” Osmeña added.  (FREEMAN)