All eyes will now be on the Cebu City Council after Mayor Michael Rama announced that the city has already received the 50 percent downpayment from the winning bidders of the 45.2-hectare lot at the South Road Properties.
Rama went to Manila to hand over the notice of award to the developers, a move contrary to an earlier advice of the City Council for him not to receive the downpayment from the three winning bidders following an opinion from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
DILG Undersecretary Austere Panadero earlier said the council resolution giving Rama the authority to negotiate with the SRP investors cannot supersede an ordinance passed in 2012 asking interested firms to submit their development plans.
Contending that the DILG was just a mere opinion, Rama announced that the city has already received the P6.5 billion downpayment from the three SRP developers. The city previously received a bond of at least P1 billion from the winning bidders.
Now that Rama has just pulled off a surprise, we can only expect the opposition-dominated council to adversely react. Of course, the mayor's move can be construed by those councilors allied with the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan as another offensive in the ongoing conflict between them and the executive department.
The council members are set to convene tomorrow and the SRP lot sale issue is expected to be high on their agenda. However, it remains to be seen whether they would launch a counter-offensive to derail the SRP deal.
With this latest development, the SRP deal issue is expected to dominate the headlines in the coming days, especially now that Rama's camp and the BOPK are preparing to launch their political campaign for next year's elections.
What's sad, however, is that the SRP has become the biggest political casualty in the ongoing conflict, something that would only taint the city's image before the business community.