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Thursday, March 24, 2005
SpeakOut: Right to reclaim Pond C
By Nigel Paul Villarete
SpeakOut
Of course I study my law. I have to, even if I’m only an engineer. I don’t want to be caught flat-footed like some other people I know.
It’s exactly what I was referring to – this knack for subtle and obscure deception – telling the public what is not true.
First, they blast the papers declaring they have land titles. Now they say what they have are merely tax declarations.
Anybody in government knows tax declarations are not proof of ownership. In fact, an official can go to jail if he allows government to buy land based on a mere tax declaration.
Preferential right
What preferential right are they talking about? That is exactly what it is: preferential. You lose it when you give it up.
All foreshore areas and waters are owned by the National Government and it is only the National Government that has the fundamental right to reclaim, which right they can convey to local governments.
The Local Government Code gives the cities first shot at being granted that opportunity to reclaim. Talisay had it in 1991 when the Code was enacted but they wasted it and blew away the chance.
When the National Government, through an international agreement, granted the right to reclaim the SRP area (including the 20.5-hectare Pond C), it was bestowed absolutely on the Cebu City Government alone.
Section 6.3 of the Subsidiary Loan Agreement stated it very succinctly.
The Cebu City Government may (it doesn’t say will, shall, or should; it says “may”) . . . enter into an agreement with…Talisay…to reclaim that portion of the reclamation…which is within the boundary of Talisay.
It did not state that Cebu City will allow Talisay to reclaim. It did not say the right given by the National Government to Cebu City to reclaim Pond C may be given to Talisay. It simply says Cebu City may enter into an agreement.
An agreement for which Talisay may have the opportunity of having something for its own--by providing local counterpart funds for it and providing for Pond C its loan (principal and interest) payments.
No less than Mayor Soc Fernandez inquired on how Talisay may avail of that wonderful opportunity.
Right to reclaim
But the right to reclaim Pond C remained with Cebu City. Had that agreement materialized, it would still have been the Cebu City Government that reclaimed the area through its contractor, not Talisay.
Talisay would then have had that wonderful gift on a silver platter, sitting on the fence and watching on the sidelines while Cebu City unfolded their future progress for them, in front of them. That’s how unselfishly brotherly Cebu City had been to Talisay through these years.
But they blew it. No agreement ever materialized. The plans for Pond C went up in thin smoke.
But not the right to reclaim it! The right to reclaim Pond C was bestowed and granted to Cebu City by the National Government ten years back. Cebu City can reclaim Pond C anytime!
(March 24, 2005 issue)
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