WHAT started out as a dull City Council session Tuesday quickly turned into an animated debate over whether the body should authorize the mayor to negotiate an expropriation or just go ahead and expropriate for road-right-of-way.

Under proposed Ordinances 2009-245 and 2009-246, the City Council will authorize the mayor through the City Legal Office to negotiate with Flora Emata and spouses Michael and Stela Sison for acquisition of their property in Barangay 21 in Cagayan de Oro to be used as road-right-of-way for residents living in the inner zone of J. Pacana Street.

Although he sees nothing wrong with expropriating the land for such purpose, Councilor Teodulfo Lao lamented how the expropriation proceeding is being “milked” for “political mileage.” Lao said the action betrays City Hall’s lack of political will.

“It is inherent upon the mayor to expropriate the land for the good of the city’s constituents. Why go through all these? If the City Government is really serious in giving inner zone residents of Barangay 21 a road-right-of-way, it can,” Lao told his colleagues while representatives of Barangay 21—who were in the gallery—applauded Lao’s point.

Majority Floor Leader Ramon Tabor defended the ordinances, saying the mayor does not have the “inherent” power to expropriate and that the City Council should first confer it on him.

Opposition Councilor Roger Abaday pointed out another side to the matter. The city should first determine who the rightful owner of the property is before the actual expropriation of the land.

In Ordinance 2009-245, City Hall would appropriate the sum of P1,053,798 that will be taken from the “land acquisition/expropriation” allotment in the 2009 Annual Budget for the mandatory 15 percent deposit in court filing fees, registration and documentation expenses, and other legal fees for the property of Emata.

While Ordinance 2009-246 appropriated the sum of P486,988 for the Sisons for the same items.

Abaday said this could be confusing as there are two different amounts for the same expropriation proceeding of the same purpose: road-right-of-way for inner zone residents of Barangay 21.

Tabor stuck to his point, that the City Council has to confer on the mayor the authority to negotiate with the owners of the property to be expropriated.

With no objections on the floor, the ordinances were approved for second and final reading.

“Talo-talo man ni nga ordinansa. The mayor can always direct the City Legal Office to go right ahead with the expropriation proceedings. Nia man gud mga taga Barangay 21, so siempre mag grand standing gyud ning mga konsehal ngari,” Lao lamented.

“It is so convenient for them to want to grant authority to the mayor for this simple expropriation of land for political mileage but these same councilors were not so keen and concerned in granting the mayor authority before signing the BOT (build-operate-transfer) contract with the Agora Redevelopment project,” Lao said in an interview after the session.

“Kini nga importante kaayo kay dalan sa mga tao ang gihisgutan, maoy ilang langanon. Pero kadtong BOT contract sa Agora diretso na bisa’g wala pa miagi una sa konseho nga mao unta ang angay,” added Lao. (CBC)