Council asks status on plan to rescind FLI’s SRP lot purchase

The Cebu City Council wants to know the status of the plan to rescind the 19.2-hectare sale of the South Road Properties (SRP) to Filinvest Inc. in 2015

“After the Filinvest Consortium declared its intent to rescind the purchase of the SRP (South Road Properties) property last year, no further news of such intent was heard from the group again,” reads a portion of the resolution that the City Council approved during the June 5 regular session.

The resolution was authored by Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia but he was absent during the session and Councilor Joel Garganera instead presented it to the body on Garcia’s behalf.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña has been very vocal on his intention to rescind the city’s contract with FLI for the 19.2-hectare lot sale and the consortium of Ayala Land, Cebu Holdings Inc., and SM Prime Holdings which bought a 26-hectare lot at SRP in 2015.

In the approved resolution, the rescission of FLI’s acquired 19.2-hectare lot will allow the city government to re-acquire the property.

Then, the city can resell the property at P110,000 per square meter at the cheapest.

This, as the Federal Land, a private real estate developer, has already submitted an unsolicited proposal to purchase 29,881 square meters at P3.4 billion.

This is the reason the City Council is asking for an update on the status of the mutual agreement of Osmeña and FLI to rescind the 19.2-hectare lot sale.

The pronouncement of FLI to rescind the sale was made early last year together with Osmeña at his office.

Further, Osmeña even asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to disapprove the 45.2-hectare lot sale done by the previous administration.

In his September 7, 2017 letter to COA, Osmeña said he has more reason to rescind the contract entered into by the previous administration after knowing the “real valuation” of SRP lots as offered by Federal Land which proposed to buy P115,000 per square meter as compared to the P38,000 per square meter price in 2015.

As of press time, the mayor said he has not received a response from the COA and hinted to pursue legal action for the inaction of his letter.