Province-owned lot to be set aside for journalists’ housing project: guv
-A A +ATuesday, October 16, 2012
CEBU Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said she will set aside part of an 11-hectare Province-owned lot in Tunghaan, Minglanilla for a housing project for media practitioners in Cebu.
The Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists (CFBJ), headed by Sun.Star Staff Reporter Elias Baquero, passed a resolution “requesting the governor to sell or donate a Province-owned lot to the CFBJ as a housing project for legitimate tri-media practitioners in Cebu.”
Garcia, though, told CFBJ officers that before Capitol can set aside the property, the group should first pass another resolution to the Provincial Board (PB).
Baquero said they will present another resolution requesting the PB for an endorsement today.
In an interview, he said CFBJ has 200 members from 10 media organizations.
Baquero said initially they would like the housing project within Cebu City.
“Originally Cebu City was our target, but during the meeting with the governor, when she received this resolution of the CFBJ, she said it would be difficult to sell the Province-owned lot in Cebu City because it would undergo a public bidding advertisement,” Baquero said.
Garcia, during the meeting, said the Province-owned lots included in the expired 93-1 ordinance in Cebu City did not undergo a public bidding because the people involved are the actual occupants for many years.
A representative from the Provincial Legal Office said that since the CFBJ members are not actual occupants of the provincial lots, then sale of the lot should undergo a public bidding.
The governor said she thought of Minglanilla as an alternative for the housing project.
The area of the Minglanilla property allocated for the housing project depends on the number of members who will avail themselves of the project.
“A lot of tri-media practitioners working in Metro Cebu have no permanent residence and are just renting houses and spaces due to financial incapability to acquire their own house and lot,” the resolution read.
Baquero said the housing project was planned three years ago.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 16, 2012.
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