Osmeña ‘enlightens’ city council on SRP

CEBU, Philippines - Former Cebu City Mayor and south district representative Tomas Osmeña appeared before the City council yesterday to express his opposition on the proposed repeal of the ordinance which protects the South Road Properties from “unlawful transactions.”

“Who can enlighten the situation better than me? I can explain many aspects here because I was the one who formulated the ordinance 2332,” said Osmeña.

Councilors Mary Ann Delos Santos, Dave Tumulak, Hanz Abella and James Cuenco, allies of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, have earlier proposed to repeal ordinance 2332 or “an ordinance protecting the South Road Properties and its stakeholders from unlawful and unauthorized transactions and dealings.”

Repealing City Ordinance 2332, according to Delos Santos, would mean that “the City administration will be given a better option in converting portions of its real properties into possible cash.”

The proponents of the proposal to repeal the ordinance explained that Ordinance 2332 hinders Rama “to openly entertain” investors and developers to purchase parcels of land at SRP without prior approval from the city council.

But Osmeña stressed that the presence of the ordinance does not prevent Rama to entertain SRP lot buyers.

“Ordinance 2332 has not amended one bit the Mayor’s freedom of speech as granted by the constitution. He is free to entertain any possible SRP buyer. He can sing, dance and discuss with any buyer about any possibility under the sun about the SRP including a sale,” Osmeña said.

However, he pointed out that Rama is prohibited to formally engage into any transaction without the council’s approval.

As stated in Section 3 of City Ordinance 2332, no person, including the mayor, are allowed to “sell, dispose, transfer or convey property in SRP; advertise or publish for sale; invite for public bidding, negotiated sale or other mode of sale, disposal; and transact in any manner.”

Osmeña said the administration should follow the guidelines of sec.2 of the ordinance which allows and encourages “unsolicited proposals.”

“Their proposed ordinance cannot withstand scrutiny. It is only through the unsolicited proposal of the Build-Operate-and-Transfer (BOT) law, where we can screen the buyers and see how serious they are and even perfect the proposal. But, we have a mayor who doesn’t know how to follow guidelines,” Osmeña said.

Unsolicited proposal, defined by Osmeña, is “demand-driven where investor has his own way of thinking on how to develop the property” while solicited proposal is “selling the lot without giving importance on further developments.”

Together with Osmeña yesterday were Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) general manager Nigel Paul Villarete and Cebu Investment Promotion Center (CIPC) managing director Joel Mari Yu who also expressed their arguments to the council on the proposed repeal of the ordinance.

Villarete said he opposed the repeal as it is against the approval of the National Economic Development Council (NEDA).

“My main objection here is because it finances a lot of things which is not in accordance with NEDA approval and Official Development Assistance (ODA) context,” Villarete pointed out, adding that it might create an international argument considering that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) finances the SRP development.

Yu, for his part, said he is not really for or against the repeal but more on the refinement of the ordinance.

“You (executive and legislative departments) have to come to a meeting of the minds, you cannot be like republicans and democrats,” he added.

On the other hand, lawyer Amay Ong Vaño of PAREB-Cebu Real Estate Board Inc. was in favor of the measure to repeal the ordinance.

“We believe that it is time to sell the property (SRP) and enter into joint venture agreement for the Cebuanos and the city to enjoy the revenues of sales and generate more employment.  Because the city’s main goal is to render public service, not to develop SRP,” he said.

He added that without being tied down to City Ordinance 2332, the city government would be able to “properly manage its cash flows and maximize its delivery of basic needs to Persons with Disabilities, Senior Citizens, barangay assistance, scholarships, machineries, rebuilding Cebu City Medical Center and the like.”

Meanwhile, the city government plans to bid out the parcel of land at SRP where the San Pedro Calungsod template is located.

SM Prime Holdings Inc. already expressed its interest in purchasing the property which is approximately 26.3 hectares and costs around P5.4 billion.

“They should be careful of the danger of bidding it out without approval of the city council, even though there is a law that the city council can reject it. Because if that happens we will be subject to lawsuit,” Osmeña reminded. — (FREEMAN)