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Friday, March 31, 2006
Town mayors’ stand ‘big obstacle’ to land swap
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s plan to pursue the land swapping deal with the Province hit another obstacle, this time because of the town mayors’ appeal for the governor to drop the deal.
Osmeña admitted yesterday the mayors’ opinion may cause another hitch, but he will continue to re-negotiate with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and the Provincial Board (PB).
The mayor said he has not spoken to the governor yet but anticipates more difficulty now that the mayors have given their stand on the issue.
“I’m not discussing the deal with the governor but now, even the mayors are in agreement with her to scrap the deal and that’s putting a big obstacle for me,” he told reporters yesterday.
Some mayors said they believe the land swapping is disadvantageous to the Province, considering the disparity in the value of the properties that will be swapped.
Aggravating
Osmeña proposed to swap a 3.3-hectare vacant lot worth some P500 million with the Province’s 44.5-hectare property that is said to be worth at least P1 billion. The Province’s lots are occupied by Cebu City residents.
“That’s why I told the councilors to just shut up but (Councilor Rodrigo) Bebot Abellanosa keeps putting it on TV and I think that’s aggravating the situation,” the mayor added.
Apparently, the repeated airing of the council session where Vice Mayor Michael Rama delivered his speech questioning the land swap did not sit well with the mayor.
Although Rama has already kept quiet about his reservations about the land swapping, his speech is repeatedly aired over a cable television station owned by Abellanosa.
Nothing to lose
“Mike Rama is not saying anything but on TV he’s saying it 24 hours a day, that’s why I don’t think this is going to be easy for me...Bebot has got nothing to lose, he’s from the south district but he’s certainly not contributing anything to what I want, which is to calm things down,” the mayor said.
Osmeña earlier asked the councilors to stop commenting on the deal, lest their comments anger Capitol officials further.
Capitol officials already dropped the land swap deal after they heard insulting comments from some council members.
In a phone interview yesterday, Abellanosa said he did not mean to bungle the re-negotiation process by airing the session on TV.
He explained that all council sessions are aired over his station, but the April 15 session where Rama delivered his speech continues to be aired because the most recent session has yet to be edited.
Abellanosa said they will be ready to air the April 22 council session today.
“I heard he (Abellanosa) got offended when he’s proposal to have a public hearing on the land swap was turned down, so now he’s got a new idea of a public hearing, which is to keep airing it on TV,” the mayor said in his news conference yesterday. (LCR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 31, 2006 issue)
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