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Thursday, May 27, 2004
Osmeña ‘not giving up fight’ for SRP
By GINGGING A. CAMPAÑA Sun.Star Staff Reporter
With Ramon Jaluag
CEBU City Mayor To-mas Osmeña is not heeding the business sector’s call to calm down on his conflict with Talisay City Mayor Eduardo Gullas, over ownership of a 53.44-hectare portion of the South Reclamation Project (SRP).
Robert Go, president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), said in an interview over radio dyDD yesterday that three companies, which are interested in investing in the 240-hectare SRP, are worried by the two Cebuano leaders’ dispute.
The prospective investors are a Korean power company, Aboitiz Equity Ventures and Ayala Land Inc.
But when sought for comment, the mayor said: “I’m not going to give up this fight.”
Territorial integrity
Gullas, for his part, called for sobriety but also insisted he will protect Talisay’s “territorial integrity from any incursion.”
Mayor Osmeña said the business sector has to realize that the property belongs to the people of Cebu City, including them.
“What am I supposed to do, give Talisay P5 billion to make them (CCCI) happy?” he told a news conference yesterday.
Osmeña also scoffed at Provincial Board (PB) Member Vicente Maambong’s claim that the Metro Cebu Development Project is a “brainchild of Gullas.”
“That’s a big joke. In a very concocted way, he is trying to prove Eddiegul is the owner of SRP. It’s not his brainchild. It’s not mine either. The original plans started with Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. Somebody found some old plans (among Don Sergio’s papers),” Osmeña said.
Done deal
Meanwhile, Osmeña downplayed suggestions that becoming chairman of the Regional Development Council (RDC) 7 will give him more control over the SRP.
He stressed that the SRP is already a done deal, so it no longer needs approval from RDC. Osmeña said he is not even running for chairman of the League of Cities, so he will have time to help the RDC.
Peacefully
Gullas, who is outgoing Talisay City mayor, said he is amenable to the idea of mediation proposed by the PB.
“I am for resolving the issue peacefully and civilly. That is why I call upon all the parties concerned to observe sobriety,” the congressman-elect said in a press statement faxed to Sun.Star yesterday.
“Let the proper authorities decide whether Mayor Osmeña can achieve through the back door what he set out but failed to do when he proposed, not so long ago, to annex the then municipality of Talisay to Cebu City.”
Gullas referred to a proposal floated by Tomas and his cousin, then presidential adviser Lito Osmena, when the SRP plans were still being finalized, to convert Talisay to a barangay of Cebu City.
The proposal was quickly shot down by Gullas’ allies in the then Talisay Municipal Council, presided by then vice mayor and now Mayor-elect Socrates Fernandez.
“No matter how strongly we feel about an issue,” Gullas further said in the press release, “there is no excuse for anyone, especially a respected public official, to say things that are otherwise said in utter childishness or drunken stupor.”
Resenting the “land-grabber” tag, Gullas retorted that he was only protecting Talisay City’s territorial integrity, which the Cebu City Government violated when it reclaimed land within Talisay’s municipal waters without permission.
What Talisay City has done so far was to oppose the land titling application by the Cebu City Government before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the entire SRP, including the 53.44 hectares within Talisay’s territory.
An application for titling of the disputed 53.44 hectares by the Talisay City Government is ready to be filed but Gullas, who is on leave and nursing a fever, has not signed the documents.
Osmena apparently took offense over Gullas’ announcement after his proclamation that one of his priorities when he returns to Congress is the creation of an economic zone on part of the SRP.
Gullas added that Talisay is willing to reimburse the Cebu City Government for the reasonable cost of reclamation.
(May 27, 2004 issue)
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