Monday, January 29, 2007 Mayor seeks negotiating clout
MAYOR Tomas Osmeña is asking the Cebu City Council to give him a free hand to negotiate for the sale and lease of portions of the South Road Properties (SRP).
Councilor Jose Daluz III said the mayor wants the City to have money to pay its foreign loan obligations this year.
In a resolution, he will ask colleagues to grant the mayor that authority this Wednesday.
Daluz assured, though, that memorandums of agreement (MOAs) and contracts the mayor will enter into will still pass through the council.
The mayor just wants to assure the businessmen that he has been given authority and that the council is backing him up in transactions he will have with them.
“The mayor just intends to be given the discretion to enter into commercial transactions, that he is authorized to negotiate and has the complete backing of the council,” Daluz said.
In a proposed resolution, Daluz asked the council to affirm the patrimonial or proprietary nature of the SRP. This way, the City can sell it to private entities, including private corporations.
Prospects
He requested that they authorize the mayor to sell or dispose of Lot B and Lot F of the SRP.
Lot B is located at the right side of the rows of slanting light poles at the Mambaling Access Road going to the SRP. Lot F, on the other hand, is the portion near the sea.
The City is negotiating with Bigfoot Global Solutions, which plans to buy 16 hectares.
Bigfoot’s project, which will be the first at the SRP, will include a yacht club, a movie studio and a five-star hotel.
Daluz said the mayor is selling portions of the SRP so it can settle its foreign loans.
Osmeña, he said, still wants to lease the SRP to those interested to set up businesses there instead of those who just want buy the lots but have no development plans.
“It is because the SRP will just go to waste. He doesn’t want land speculation there,” the councilor said. (RHM)
