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Thursday, January 01, 2004
Council to blame for project’s delay
By Rose O. Versoza
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE timely implementation of the P100-million Paradise Island housing project in Barangay Looc is now in the hands of the Mandaue City Council.
Mayor Thadeo Ouano said the City Council will be held responsible if the project is delayed due to its failure to immediately act on his request for authority to sign a land swapping agreement with Comtrade Corp.
He said the City Council exceeded its authority when, instead of just approving his request, the body gave him a counter-proposal for the project.
The council refused to authorize Ouano to exchange the City’s 4.9-hectare foreshore lot in Paradise Island, Barangay Opao, with the company’s 8,000-square-meter lot near the Bantayan sa Hari.
Flawed
This, after City Attorney Malcolm Seno found some constitutional flaws in the agreement. Seno said the proposed agreement involves a transfer of ownership of the foreshore land to a private corporation, which is prohibited under the Constitution.
Councilor Carlo Fortuna, chairman of the committee on laws, said they offered the mayor other means of pursuing the housing project without exposing themselves to legal charges.
Ouano would have wanted to use the company’s lot as site for the medium-rise condominium buildings, where the squatter-households in Paradise Island can be relocated.
Comtrade intends to develop the foreshore land into a tourism destination and other commercial purposes.
But instead of a land swap deal, the council proposed that Comtrade donate its property to the City Government, said Fortuna.
Deal
The City Government, in turn, could allow the company to reclaim and develop the foreshore land.
“No matter what their proposals are, my only objective is to get the P100 million from NHA (National Housing Authority),” Ouano told Sun.Star.
Ouano explained that a delay in the land swapping agreement could jeopardize the implementation of the housing project.
He feared that the P100-million budget, which the NHA Poverty Alleviation Fund has allocated for the housing project, will revert to the National Government if it is not implemented soon.
The mayor said it would have been simpler if the council could just give him a written authority to enter into a land swapping agreement but subject to conditions.
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