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Saturday, September 18, 2004
Marketing ploy: same SRP, different name
THE P4.3-billion South Reclamation Project will no longer be called by such name. It will soon be known as the Cebu City South Road Properties (SRP).
Cebu Investment Promotions Center (CIPC) managing director Joel Mari Yu said that since the project is now completed, they are now in the process of registering the 240-hectare property under a business name with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 7.
Yu, who was one of the guests in yesterday’s meeting of the infrastructure development committee (IDC) of the Regional Development Council 7, also said the project’s management office, headed by Cebu City Planning Officer Paul Villarete, had been dissolved and will be replaced by a property management office, which will run the SRP.
However, Yu said the absence of a title and a legal opinion allowing the sale of reclaimed lots have made it impossible for CIPC to market the SRP.
Legal opinion
“We cannot start until we legally possess the land,” he added.
The CIPC is waiting for a “definitive” legal opinion from the Department of Justice or any equivalent agency on the sale of reclaimed land, following the issues raised by Sen. Miriam Santiago against former president Fidel Ramos in relation to the Amari Land scam.
But Yu did not discuss the issue on Talisay City’s claim of ownership over 53 hectares of the reclamation.
In a press conference last Monday, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña scoffed at former senator John “Sonny” Osmeña’s statement that the City Government cannot sell the lots at the SRP.
Citing jurisprudence on the Amari land deal, Sonny had said the City has no right to sell reclaimed properties.
“Sonny is a lousy lawyer. He’s been trying to destroy the SRP for so many years,” the mayor said.
Different cases
He said the Amari property and the SRP are two different cases because the former had sold their right to reclaim.
“The City Government is the one that implemented the project. In the Amari deal, they sold the sea. Why should they sell the sea? How can they sell the sea? The City Government is different because we were given the right to reclaim and we are selling reclaimed lots,” the mayor told news reporters.
Tomas lamented that Sonny, his cousin and political enemy, has been attacking the SRP for the last 10 years and even delayed the project “so we can’t sell.”
Exaggeration
“He said that our debt has reached P16 billion already. Huh! He likes to exaggerate. Sige lang. It’s because we are not paying for the road,” the mayor said.
Sonny had alleged that with the City’s debts reaching P16 billion, “there is a looming crisis in the finances of the City Government resulting from his (Tomas) ill-conceived SRP.”
Yu explained to the IDC that the Supreme Court ruled against the Amari land deal because the Public Estates Authority sold the land before it was reclaimed, so it was still a public domain then.
He said the City needs to sell 51 percent of the property so it can pay annual amortization to foreign loans.
Including interests, the City will have to raise P276 million in 2005, P405 million in 2006 and P398 million in 2007 to pay the loan for the SRP.
No incentives
Yu admitted that due to the absence of legal ownership, the City cannot grant incentives to investors.
Aside from the absence of a title, the City still has to acquire a Presidential Proclamation for the property, which was registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority in 1997.
In the meantime, the City decided to have the SRP marketed as a prime mixed land use property for light manufacturing industries, commercial and tourism establishments instead of purely an economic zone.
CIPC has already met with local and international property developers and have scheduled road shows in neighboring Asian countries to promote the reclaimed land. (CYR/GAC)
(September 18, 2004 issue)
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