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Friday, September 30, 2005
Tomas sees P2.9B from sale of 29 has. of SRP land
Mayor Tomas Osmeña hopes to ease Cebu City’s financial burden by March next year when the City sells 29 hectares of land at the South Reclamation Project (SRP) amounting to some P2.9 billion.
Osmeña announced yesterday that the City Government will be ready to bid out the lots on the Mambaling side by February next year.
He placed the value of the SRP lands at P100 million per hectare, but said the City is willing to sell these at P80 million per hectare.
“I just want to remove the financial pressure on the City in the next few years because it’s already affecting the image of the City,” the mayor told a news conference yesterday.
The City Government has paid some P300 million for this year’s Aug. 20 billing.
The amount covered the first payment of the principal, amounting to P150 million, the interest of P140 million and the P10-million fee to the National Government as the guarantor to the loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
At the current exchange rate, the City owes the Japanese Government some P6.3 billion for the 295-hectare reclamation project.
Next year, the City Government will have to pay the highest amortization for the principal and interest of the SRP loan, at P600 million.
Potential investors wanted to see the special patent before putting their money in the SRP, after Talisay City staked a claim over 53.44 hectares of the property, which it says falls under its territorial jurisdiction.
The special patent Environment Secretary Michael Defensor issued for seven of 15 SRP lots is already as good as an original certificate of title.
The Registry of Deeds of Cebu City confirmed it has received the patent for the SRP. The office is transcribing the document’s contents onto a special paper called judicial form 45.
The special patent contains all the information that will appear on the certificate of title, such as technical descriptions (boundaries) of the parcels of SRP land under the ownership of Cebu City.
But since it is written on ordinary paper, the contents of the special patent will have to be transferred to a special form, which shall be called the original certificate of title.
The special patent, after it was issued by Defensor, was forwarded to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7, which transmitted it to the Cebu Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro).
Penro chief Teodorico Baral said the process of issuing the title will not take long, as the Registry of Deeds will just register the special patent.
He also said it was the first time for the Penro to get hold of such a document.
A special patent is issued to a government entity over alienable or disposable lands by virtue of a presidential proclamation.
The SRP had been declared a special economic zone through a proclamation issued by President Arroyo.
Shortly after, the President issued Proclamation 843, which declared the SRP as alienable and disposable land and authorized Defensor to issue a special patent for the SRP to Cebu City.
As the second presidential proclamation provided that the special patent to be issued to Cebu City is “subject to private rights, if any there be,” three parcels of land within the SRP that are covered by approved land surveys have been excluded.
The Canton, Maglasang and Taneo families are said to own these private lots.
Talisay City Administrator Econg described them as “active taxpayers” since they have been consistently paying real estate taxes to the Talisay City Government.
A lot with an approved land survey is covered by a private claim. The survey is one of the requirements for land titling.
Baral said that prior to the issuance of the special patent, the Penro and the Community and Environment and Natural Resources (Cenro) conducted a preliminary investigation on the application of Cebu City.
Investigation
Once the investigation was completed, all pertinent documents and reports were submitted to DENR 7.
After verifying the documents, including certifications from the Land Registration Authority that there were no titles previously issued for the area, the DENR 7 forwarded the application to the environment department’s central office in Manila.
Mayor Osmeña said the special patent will bring in billions to the City Government in the coming years.
Cebu City will start to make money in six months, when bidding processes shall have been completed, he said.
Instead of giving the Municipality of Cordova a two-hectare lot at the SRP, Osmeña said he will just give the town P150 million since it will not have a need for land in Cebu City.
He said, though, that the amount will still be subject to the City Council’s approval.
A gift
The mayor promised to give the lot in exchange for the municipality’s hosting of the city’s Badjao residents who were recently displaced by a fire.
“It’s a gift because they (Cordova) do not fight us,” he said.
As for the Talisay City Government’s insistence on its claim on a 53.44-hectare portion of the SRP, Osmeña said Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st district) can say whatever he wants to say, “but he gets nothing.”
Osmeña encouraged real estate brokers to participate in the bidding, which will be subject to approval by the City Council.
He said anybody can participate in the bidding since the SRP is both a commercial and industrial area. (LCR/LAP/GC)
(September 30, 2005 issue)
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