Occupants offer to buy Busay lot from Capitol

Thursday, January 26, 2012

A 5.2-hectare lot in Barangay Busay, Cebu City, which is covered by Provincial Ordinance 93-1, has a buyer.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said Province-owned lot will be bought by the Skyview Homeowners’ Association, whose members have occupied the property for about 25 years.

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The governor met with officers of the association yesterday, together with Chito Borommeo, a representative of Vice President Jejomar Binay.

The association will make a lump-sum payment through a financial institution but Garcia declined to reveal the amount. The governor said she still has to talk with the Provincial Board (PB) so she can explain how they came up with the price.

“I still need the authority from the PB. Although, previously they already gave me the authority to negotiate with the 93-1 (beneficiaries) and I thanked them for their trust and confidence,” she told reporters in an ambush interview.

She said Capitol will be disposing of its properties.

The Skyview Homeowners’ Association is expected to sign soon a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with a financing agency. Garcia said she hoped Binay would attend the signing.

Asked which financing agency will help the homeowners, Garcia merely said the members of the association are members of the Cebu CFI Community Cooperative.

The governor’s mother, retired judge Esperanza Fiel Garcia, is chairperson of CFI.

Governor Garcia said it does not matter who will finance the lot purchase. What is important, she said, is that Capitol is assured of full payment.

She noted that in the past, when there was no full payment, Capitol was forced to collect from homeowners.

The amortization of homeowners will be based on a profiling of 126 occupants of the Province-owned lot.

Officers of the Skyview Homeowners’ Association wrote Garcia to express the group’s intent to buy the provincial lot.

Garcia considers the development as a “breakthrough” and commended the officers of the homeowners’ association for showing leadership.

She said she hoped that other occupants of Province-owned lots would do the same.