Still a long way to go on land swap
IAM not surprised that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña waxed poetic over the signing of a memorandum of agreement with Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III to swap some city lots with those owned by the province but occupied by informal settlers under Capitol’s Ordinance 93-1. “I promise to bring you the best Christmas of your life,” he told 93-1 beneficiaries during the signing of the MOA the other day. I could just imagine the loudness of the clapping when he said that.
I said I am not surprised because the mayor always has the gift of gab, like a salesman does. He can make something bleak look promising. He often exaggerates the importance of events to serve political ends. The Cebuano phrase for that is, “makabuhi’g patay.” But seeing the positive instead of the negative may just be Osmeña’s nature. That’s why as a politician he is formidable.
But will the 93-1 beneficiaries really get the best Christmas of their lives this December? Let us look closely.
One, what was signed was a MOA, not the exchange of land titles. The land swap agreement will still have to pass through the Provincial Board (PB) in the case of Davide and the Cebu City Council in the case of Osmeña. As far as numbers are concerned, the PB may not be a problem considering that Davide’s Liberal Party has the majority there. Meanwhile, the opposition Team Rama led by Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella controls the city council.
I am not saying that the PB will go through the agreement blindly while the city council will oppose it for the sake of opposing. I believe that the members of the two legislative bodies are thinking individuals, not robots. Thus they will have to subject the MOA to close scrutiny. The tricky part in land swaps is value pegging. The PB will have to find out if the Capitol would not be disadvantaged value-wise in the swap. That goes the same with the city council.
If the MOA would be placed on deeper scrutiny, I don’t think it would be approved in one session. Members of the PB and the city council, for example, need to summon resource persons and do research to ensure that the value of the swapped lots are more or less equal. Approving the MOA just on the say-so of Davide and Osmeña and without first summoning the experts would be a disservice to both the constituents of the City and the Province.
Two, if the land swap is realized, that doesn’t mean the informal settlers will automatically get the titles for the lots they are occupying. Those who have fully paid for the lots but for some reasons Capitol did not give the lot titles to may get what are due them. But those who have been remiss in their obligation to purchase the lots will have to go through the same process they went through when the lots were still owned by the province.
The informal settlers will still have to deal with the new lot owner which, in that case, would be the Cebu City Government. There could be renegotiations of the terms of payment and the city will surely subject those lots to re-valuation. Note that since 1991, the value of lots in the city has shot upwards. That would surely be factored in the renegotiation. What I am saying is that the city won’t give up the lots to informal settlers just like that. Those lots can’t be given as gifts.
Why do you think is Capitol willing to have the 93-1 lots swapped? Because of the problems it is encountering in dealing with the informal settlers occupying the areas-properties that can be considered prime lots. These same problems will just be turned over to the new owner, the City, together with all the difficulties that the Province encountered for more than two decades. Can Osmeña and the City solve those problems in a jiffy? I doubt.