Friday, September 05, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
CEBU CITY -- Tinago Barangay Councilor Joel Garganera challenged Mayor Tomas Osmeña to quit his post if he cannot sell at least one lot at the South Road Properties (SRP) before the year ends.
But if Osmeña succeeds, Garganera said he will be the one to resign from the Tinago council.
The challenge came less than a week after reports quoted City Hall officials as saying there are two investors interested in the SRP, and that these transactions alone could earn for the City P3.2 billion.
"When will these promises be fulfilled? What is the real score?" Garganera said.
Interviewed separately, Mayor Osmeña said he won't take Garganera's challenge, but assured that the City will sell parcels of land at the SRP before the year ends.
"I am responsible to the people of Cebu City, and not just one barangay councilor... I don't react to things like that. It's a question of mind over matter. If we don't mind him, he doesn't matter," he said of Garganera's challenge.
Osmeña assured the SRP will start to earn this year, but admitted problems with bureaucratic red tape are delaying the negotiations with three major developers interested to join the bidding for the sale of lots.
In March last year, Garganera went to court to try to stop the mayor, the City Council and the Cebu Investment Promotions Center from marketing or leasing the 290-hectare SRP. He had also said that Proclamation 843, which transferred ownership of the SRP to the City, was invalid because it lacked congressional approval.
Two months later, a Cebu judge said he found no basis in Garganera's lawsuit to issue a temporary restraining order against Cebu City's transactions to develop the SRP.
The Tinago barangay councilor, a former barangay captain allied with the city's political opposition, recalled that in April last year, the mayor announced that by June 2007, lots would be sold.
"When June 2007 came, no lots were sold and again he promised that definitely, lots would be sold by the end of last year. In January 2008, (Osmeña) together with Cebu Investment Promotions Center managing director Joel Mari Yu, declared that both the City and a developer of mixed-use projects will be ready to enter into a contract of sale by the first and second quarters of 2008. The first half of the year passed, still no sale took place," said Garganera.
Interviewed separately, Osmeña recalled that when the City sold a North Reclamation Area property to the Gokongweis in 2005, it had to get approval from the Commission on Audit, which took two years to get.
"There will be a sale this year but you have to remember that there can be bureaucratic problems that make things difficult. Remember it took COA two years to approve the sale of that lot. They assured that it won't happen again, but who knows for sure?" he told Sun.Star Cebu.
Garganera, in a press conference Thursday, also pointed to the City's failure to build the P135-million ramp at the Carbon Market, as well as its recent request for the Philippine Sports Commission to release the P30 million needed to repair the Cebu City Sports Complex rubberized oval.
It is clear the City doesn't have funds, said Garganera.
"This year, we are paying P570 million in interest and principal," he said.
Since the City started paying in 2003, the City has paid approximately P2 billion in interest and principal, for a P6-billion loan it secured to build the SRP.
"The SRP is more than just a political issue. It is an economic issue (and) a social issue," said Garganera. (EPB/LCR/Sun.Star Cebu)