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Saturday, July 09, 2005
SRP titles shielded from politics: manager
Whatever happens with the presidency, it will not have any bearing on the Cebu City Government’s application for the titles of the South Reclamation Project (SRP), still pending before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
SRP Manager Nigel Paul Villarete said that if ever there is a change of administration, he is certain that the Cebu City Government will still get the titles, even if by that time, Cebu City has become an “opposition country.”
Should Arroyo resign, Vice President Noli de Castro, whose candidacy in 2004 did not earn the support of Mayor Tomas Osmeña, will assume the presidency.
Asked if this would not jeopardize the City’s application since the mayor was not supportive of de Castro, Villarete insisted that the titling process is “not political in nature.”
“The titling is not a political thing. There will always be a new head. The presidency will not be left vacant,” he told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
He believes that whoever is the president “should not stop something that is good for the country.”
Environment Secretary Michael Defensor, as of press time yesterday, announced his all-out support for Arroyo.
Villarete said the SRP loan binds the Republic of the Philippines and the agreement is “not something arbitrary or discretionary in nature.”
Binding
As required in the bilateral loan agreement, he said, the titling of the SRP under the name of the Cebu City Government should be done “regardless of who is the president.”
The National Government, through the Land Bank of the Philippines, entered into a loan agreement with the then Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund, which is now the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), in 1995.
A year later, a subsidiary loan agreement was forged between Land Bank and the Cebu City Government for the construction of the SRP, which has now become a P15-billion asset.
The undertaking took the local government 15 years to accomplish, from its inception in 1989 to what it is today, according to a State of the City Address of Mayor Osmeña last July 1.
Business
Osmeña said the SRP’s goal is to create at least 30,000 jobs. This also backs the 10-point agenda of the Arroyo administration.
Villarete said there is no way that the National Government will ignore the titling of the SRP because the undertaking went through various national leaders, starting from the Aquino administration.
“The loan was signed at the time of then president (Fidel) Ramos. The project was constructed during the administration of Erap. The SRP was then declared a special economic zone and its ownership transferred to the Cebu City Government through presidential proclamations by President Arroyo,” he said. (GAC)
(July 9, 2005 issue)
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