Council wants SRP issues settled

After almost half an hour of discussion, the Cebu City Council authorized Mayor Tomas Osmeña to enter into a compromise agreement on two cases involving the South Road Properties.

Duringyesterday'sregularsession,CouncilorsDavidTumulakandMaryAnndelos Santos, authors of the resolution, wanted Osmeña to negotiate with the relevant parties in order to put an end to the cases such as the consignation case filed by giant firms against the cityandthedeclaratoryrelieffiledbyRomuloTorresagainstmembersoftheCityCouncil.

“It is in the best interest of the City to see the conclusion of the cases involving the SRPthesoonesttimepossibleforthegoodofthecityanditsconstituents,includingwithout limitationbyamicablesettlementofcompromiseagreementoftheaforementionedcases,” reads portion of the resolution.

To recall, the previous administration sold 45.2-hectare of lots at SRP at P16.7 billion to the consortium of Ayala Land, Cebu Holdings Inc. and SM Prime Holdings for a 26.3-hectare property while the 19.2-hectare property was awarded to Filinvest Land Inc. in 2015.

These buyers already paid P11 billion to the city and they are expected to settle the remaining balance this year, as agreed in the Deed of Sale.

However, Osmeña refused to accept their payment because of his questions on the legality of the transaction. This is why these firms filed consignation in court.

FiveBarug-TeamRama-alliedcouncilorshaveabstainedfromvotingonthepassage of the resolution while 11 councilors, 10 from Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan and Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera approved the resolution.

Pesquera manifested her reservation in including the case filed by Torres against Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and other members of the City Council regarding the 45-hectare lot sale saying Osmeña should not negotiate with those involved since he is not part of the parties.

If the intention is to put an end to the issue on the 45-hectare lot sale, Pesquera said the proper resolution should be authorizing Osmeña to accept the payment of these giant developers.

But, Tumulak said he will stick to his main resolution, adding that Pesquera can make another resolution for that matter.

Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia would have wanted to conduct an executive session to discuss the cases.

Garcia said the mayor is not a party in the second case mentioned in the resolution, Torres vs. members of the City Council, adding that Osmeña doesn't have legal standing in the said case.

“Nganong mo enter the dragon naman dayon ang mayor when the mayor is not RomuloTorresandheisnotalsothevicemayor.Thesetwopartiesangmag-compromise, walay labot ang mayor unless ang mayor naay labot sa pag-file ani nga case,” he said.

Labella, for his part, said Romulo Torres filed the case against the members of the City Council involving the lot sale.

“I have very strong doubts if the mayor can work out for the compromise when he is not the party who filed the complaint against us,” he added.

Tumulak maintained to stick to his resolution.

De los Santos said the resolution is just a mere request for the mayor to negotiate with parties of the case, adding that amicable settlement is an option available to parties at any given time.

Councilor Eduardo Rama said he wanted to end the issue on the sale of the 45-hectare lot to for the good of the city.

“Manyhurtfulwordsweresaid.SM,Ayala,Filinvesthavebeencalledeventhieves by the executives. He even categorically said that he wanted to rescind the contract. Those statements affected the business environment in Cebu,” he said.

Rama said Osmeña was already quoted that the mayor is not inclined to enter into compromise agreement because of possible involvement of money.

“What are we trying to achieve here? Giving investors mix signals in the City of Cebu. We have done enough. I think, in order to settle this issue, we have to know the side of the mayor before passing a resolution. Otherwise, it will do harm than good,” he added.

Councilors Garcia, Rama, Renato Osmeña, Jr., PastorAlcover, and Erik Miguel Espina abstained from voting on the resolution of Garcia.

Meanwhile, Pesquera, in a corollary motion, requested Osmeña to accept the payment from giant firms that bought the 45-hectare lot at SRP.

But Councilor JoyAugustusYoung objected saying there are 10 “illegal” aspects of the transaction of the lot sale.

The house was divided and in a 10-6 vote, the council killed Pesquera's motion.