Council to tackle P18 billion proposal
The fate of a property giant’s proposal to make P18 billion worth of developments at Kawit Island within the South Road Properties in partnership with the Cebu City government now lies in hands of the City Council.
The city’s executive department has forwarded the documents for perusal and approval of the legislative body.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s executive assistant Francisco Fernandez said the proposed Cebu City Integrated Resort project by Universal Hotels and Resorts Inc. (UHRI), an affiliate of the John Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings, was submitted to the council last Friday.
The council is expected to discuss the proposal during its regular session on March 6.
This early, though, Osmeña said he was not expecting all members of the council to approve the project proposal.
“You have to consider the basic nature of this program. One, they are not buying the property. That's the big difference. So, after so many years, the city will own the property,” the mayor said.
UHRI proposes to lease the eight-hectare Kawit Island to build a hotel, restaurant, casino, convention center, yacht club, waterpark, among other world-class facilities, in tandem with the city government.
Osmeña has reminded the members of the council that the integrated resort will generate more jobs, increase the city's revenues, boost the land value at SRP, among others.
He said the project will benefit several college students in the coming years as the revenues of the city will increase.
Initially, Osmeña said that he and UHRI have agreed that the city will get 10 percent of the gross rentals of the project every year.
He said the city will get more income when the sales of the integrated resort go up year by year.
Sought for comment, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella assured that the council will scrutinize the proposal based on the check-andbalance principle.
“We will look into it. We will study and evaluate the proposal under the principle of check and balance,” he told The FREEMAN.
Labella said local legislators will “look into the nitty-gritty of the proposal meticulously.”
If the proposal will be found advantageous to the city and redound to the benefit of the Cebuanos, Labella assured to throw his support to it.
As of now, the City Council is composed of eight councilors affiliated with the mayor and eight councilors from the opposition side.
As council presiding officer, Labella is not included in the voting but breaks the tie where applicable.
The city government, it can be recalled, solicited counter-proposals from other business conglomerates in the Philippines to challenge UHRI's. But as of the deadline in mid-February, Cebu City's Joint Venture Selection Committee had received none.
Osmeña earlier expressed his willingness to extend the deadline if there are interested parties willing to challenge.
As of last week, he has not received proposals from other companies.