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Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Check SRP lot purchase: council to city attorney
The Cebu City Council wants the City Attorney’s Office to determine whether the City’s move to buy the private property within the South Reclamation Project (SRP) is legal.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday appeared before the City Council in an executive session and explained the need for the City to legally own the P9-million property of businessman Roque Ting.
Questions
The council called for the session following questions as to why Ting had his 6,000-square-meter lot titled as it was still under water when the City began the civil works of the SRP.
Some legislators also asked whether the City should be the one to pay for Ting’s warehouse when it was the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that demolished it when the agency implemented the Cebu South Coastal Road.
But Councilor Edgardo Labella said that if the purchase “will not constitute giving unwarrantable benefit to the private individual and cause prejudice to the City, then it is a matter that we have to look into.”
Osmeña told the council that should the City question the title on Ting’s property, “it will have to undergo a tedious process of breaking it.”
“A civil case would take 15 to 20 years to resolve,” he said.
Ting’s property is within the Talisay City portion of the SRP and Osmeña wants to pay for the lot so Talisay could no longer say that the project is encroaching on its territory.
Talisay is staking a 53-hectare claim of the SRP.
Osmeña said the purchase is a business decision and the Cebu City Government is trying to avoid further aggravation.
Claim
The mayor wants the public to understand why the City should go on with the purchase and settle for P9 million despite allegations that Ting is only claiming P500,000. But he explained that the P500,000-claim is only on the demolished warehouse.
Ting said the amount is just 28 percent or P23 million less than what he is claiming in court in his suit for damages from the City.
The case is pending with the Regional Trial Court Branch 21.
But he initially agreed with Osmeña that he will waive all claims against the City once it pays for his properties.
The council is set to discuss on Wednesday a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a deal with Ting. (GAC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 21, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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