Sunday, February 18, 2007
City asserts right to sell SRP to corporations
MAYOR Tomas Osmeña now has a free hand to negotiate, sell and enter into venture agreements with private persons for the disposal of portions of the 240-hectare South Road Properties (SRP).
The approval came after the committee on laws, ordinances, public accountability and good government reviewed the issue on whether or not the Cebu City Government is allowed to sell portions of the property to private persons and corporations.
The committee, in its report to the council last Wednesday, said that with Presidential Proclamation 843 and Special Patent 3693, as well as the powers granted to local government units under the Local Government Code, Cebu City “can alienate through sale real estate properties to private persons and corporations.”
Councilor Edgardo Labella, head of the committee, also anchored his report on the opinion of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. that such power and authority to reclaim foreshore lands has been recognized by the legislature in Republic Act 1899, approved in June 1957.
That law authorizes the reclamation of foreshore lands by chartered cities and municipalities.
The same law, coupled with the official acts of President Arroyo, made the SRP’s alienable or disposable lands of the public domain open to disposition or concession to qualified parties, the justice secretary has said.
Also, Gonzalez said the power of the City of Cebu to reclaim and sell foreshore lands under RA 1899 was upheld in Supreme Court resolutions dated Feb. 3, 1965 and June 24, 1966.
No prohibition
The resolutions, decided under the 1935 Constitution, did not prohibit the sale of alienable lands of the public domain to corporations.
“Nonetheless, in as much as the SRP is now held by the City of Cebu as patrimonial property, the prohibition to dispose of said lands to private corporations under the 1973 and 1987 Constitutions cannot be made applicable,” Gonzalez’s opinion read.
Labella also agreed with the concern of Councilor Gabriel Leyson that the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and its conduit Land Bank of the Philippines should be informed of the City’s transactions on the sale of the properties.
The SRP was built using borrowed funds at 12.292 billion yen from JBIC.
The City Government is set to pay over P200 million in amortization and interests to the Land Bank of the Philippines this month.
It is also selling some portions of the 240-hectare SRP at P10,000 to P15,000 per square meter.
It spends about P1 million a day on interest alone.
Mayor Osmeña earlier admitted that it is indeed a challenge for the City to still pay for its SRP debt without any money coming in yet, despite its completion almost seven years ago.
Selling a hectare or two of the SRP will only be made to improve the City Government’s cash flow, the mayor said. (GAC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 18, 2007 issue)
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