■ FRANK MALILONG:

The idea is exciting, to say the least, but as they say, the devil is in the details, which we will not see until JG Summit has submitted its unsolicited proposal

Give it Tommy Osmeña. The man has balls, if you’ll pardon the language. Not too many gave him a chance to succeed when he made known his plan to grow hundreds of hectares from the sea in the city’s southern corridor. One particularly critical relative called him crazy and said the money for the proposed reclamation project would be better spent elsewhere.

But Osmeña paid no heed to the naysayers and instead pursued his plan relentlessly, negotiating with the funders in Japan, badgering officials of national government agencies to declare unqualified support and cajoling his colleagues in the city government into believing that they were onto something in which the rewards to the city were abundant and exciting.

And so the South Road Properties (SRP) was born. Much can be said about how “territorial” Osmeña has become of the SRP, behaving as if it were his own private enclave instead of a cityowned asset to be administered by the duly-elected city government. But you can’t take away the fact that the SRP wouldn’t have come to being had he not dared to dream and having dreamed had not summoned the audacity to pursue it.

I see the same blind ambition in the leisure complex that he announced JG Summit Holdings has proposed to build in an eight-hectare portion of the SRP that used to be Kawit Island. The numbers are staggering: P18 billion Investment, a 1,000 room hotel, a huge convention center, restaurants and 8,000 jobs.

Kawit island will not be sold but leased for 50 years after which the property and its improvements - meaning all structures located therein - shall presumably revert to the city. Until then, the city as landowner will again presumably be collecting rentals apart from the ten to fifteen percent share in the proceeds of the development.

The idea is exciting, to say the least, but as they say, the devil is in the details, which we will not see until JG Summit has submitted its unsolicited proposal. The resort to an unsolicited proposal is not surprising because it is Osmena’s choice of mode of property disposal. In fact, he questioned the sale by then mayor Mike Rama of portions of the SRP to Ayala, Filinvest and SM because it was done through public bidding, which, he claimed, is disadvantageous to the city.

Even the mayors’ critics agree that the Kawit development project is appealing even as they assail him for playing favorites, which is, of course, obvious. JG Summit is owned by the same family (Gokongwei) that owns the Robinson malls where the city early this year opened satellite offices to process applications for business licenses. That will never happen in Ayala and SM, whose owners along with Filinvest, are in the Osmena doghouse.

Perhaps, it is time that Osmena revisit his position on the Ayala, Filinvest and SM purchases. The impasse between them cannot continue forever without both suffering immense and possibly irreparable damages. The city is sitting on an P8 billion treasure trove but Osmena will not touch it because he wants the sale rescinded. On the other side, the sellers cannot develop the properties that they bought because of the uncertainty hovering over their tenure.

It would mutually serve their respective interests if they sit down together and renegotiate with a view to addressing Osmena’s concerns on the disadvantage that the original terms will cause to the city. Imagine a scenario where JG Summit, Filinvest, Ayala and SM simultaneously develop their respective areas in the SRP. The economic benefits to the city would be immense.

That may appear to be a long shot now. But we can dream.