Recovering the SRP
IN an interview on Frankahay Ta shortly before he assumed office, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña announced his intention to recover the portions of the South Reclamation Properties (SRP) that his predecessor Michael Rama sold to Filinvest and the SM-Ayala consortium.
How, I asked him. Other than that he won't resort to legal action because the buyers can afford to hire good lawyers, Osmeña's answer was vague, saying the people themselves will find a way.
The ambiguity can perhaps be traced to the fact that the buyers' title appears to be unassailable. They acted in good faith, won the right to buy the land in a public bidding and paid good money for the same.
Five months into his term, Osmeña doesn't look like he has found a way around the legal deadend. He did file a criminal case against SM for allegedly undervaluing its real property tax base and threatened it and Filinvest with closure for again allegedly violating the law on setback. But none of these moves could in any way result in the cancellation of his much-hated deeds of sale, much less the recovery of the properties sold.
Enter former Cebu governor and congressman Pablo Garcia. A position paper that Garcia recently circulated has lighted a way for Osmeña to invalidate the sale. But there's a catch: it will adversely affect all the deals on the SRP including the ones that Osmeña made during his previous term as mayor.
Garcia's assertion is that all transactions involving the sale or disposition of lands in the SRP are not only illegal but also unconstitutional and therefore null and void from the beginning.
Explaining why they're illegal, Garcia pointed out that the city acquired title to the SRP by virtue of a grant from the national government and that under the Public Land Act, any alienable land of the public domain granted to a government unit or agency cannot be sold or otherwise encumbered "except when authorized by Congress."
Since the City was not able to secure the required congressional authority, all the transactions selling or otherwise alienating the SRP or any portion of the same "are clearly and absolutely ILLEGAL," he concluded.
On his claim on the unconstitutionally of the transactions, Garcia cited the 1987 Constitution which allows private corporations to only lease and not acquire lands of the public domain. Filinvest, SM and Ayala are all private corporations.
A bar topnotcher, Garcia warned that the city could entirely lose the SRP as the law provides that any violation will result in the reversion of the property and all its improvements to the national government.
He then urged the congressmen from Cebu to file a bill in Congress authorizing the Cebu City Government to sell the SRP to any interested party, except to private corporations. He also suggested that a case be filed to invalidate the sales already made to forestall reversion of the SRP to the State.
What about the corporation buyers? Return their money, Garcia said, but allow them to lease the properties over which they have already introduced improvements.
Those who have a contrary or different legal opinion are welcome to this space.
A bar topnotcher, Garcia warned that the city could entirely lose the SRP