Friday, February 23, 2007 Tomas willing to lift his order freezing Ciudad, other projects
IF THE lot swap is implemented, some 2,700 families will have to pay the Cebu City Government double their balances with the Capitol, but Mayor Tomas Osmeña assured their monthly amortization will be the same amount.
Whether or not the occupants will get to own the properties still remains to be seen. Osmeña stood pat on his decision not to lift the City Government-imposed moratorium on development projects in Banilad until the Province approves the original terms of the proposal.
Capitol consultant Pablo John Garcia reportedly said the Province is willing to renegotiate the original proposal if the City lifts the moratorium so developments on a provincial lot in Banilad can start.
“No, no, no. But I can give my assurance that I’ll do everything in my power to withdraw that resolution (on the moratorium) if there’s a land swap,” Osmeña told a news conference yesterday.
If it pushes through, the mayor said the City will extend the payment period for the lot occupants who still have balances.
Double
“The City will be the one to collect and it will go up. Whatever they owe will roughly double so we can reach P400 million in collections. But the monthly payment will remain the same so instead of just five years to pay, maybe 10. And the occupants agreed to that, it’s not something that we hid from them,” he said.
In a phone interview, Luz Barangay Councilor Nida Cabrera said the occupants already expected an increase in their amortization dues.
They have been informed about the increase and the occupants agreed to the adjustments, she said.
“We expected that and we understand that the appraisal value has risen. The beneficiaries are willing to pay additional amounts as long as the lot swap pushes through,” she told Sun.Star Cebu.
Interest
Beneficiaries of the lot swap proposal went to the Capitol yesterday to schedule a meeting with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, after the latter said she is willing to negotiate directly with the lot occupants.
Cabrera said they will request the governor to renegotiate with the City Government so the lot swapping can be implemented soon.
But if Capitol opts to continue disposing of their properties to the occupants without involving the City, they would also be open to it, she continued.
Also in his news conference, Osmeña said the City Government does not have any commercial interest in any of the Capitol-owned lots, particularly those near the Ayala Business Park in Barangay Luz.
City officials said vacant spaces in Luz may be utilized for barangay facilities, but it will not be sold to private investors.
“We have no commercial interest in those lots. There’s a vacant space, we might build a basketball court there but not sell it to McDonald’s. We will not be bringing in investors, the place is not even suitable,” Osmeña said.
Kneel
Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. said they might also open some interior roads in Luz that will provide fire trucks, motorists and residents access to Ayala.
Osmeña said the lots there will be solely for the occupants and not for the City, that is why he will do everything in his power to keep the occupants there.
He said, though, that with the brewing conflict between the City and the Province, the time is not right for a renegotiation.
“You want me to say sorry, I’ll say sorry now. You want me to kneel down, sure I’ll kneel down like you’ve never seen the mayor kneel down before, but don’t take that as a sign of weakness because I’ll do whatever I have to for these families,” he told reporters.
He further said that Cebu’s officials should learn from the incident in the late 1980s, when some Barangay Sambag I residents whose security of tenure was threatened attacked and killed three policemen in an encounter.
Closure
Although there was no threat of eviction that time, the families felt unstable when the Department of Health claimed ownership of the lots they were occupying.
Osmeña fears the situation will be worse this time, when occupants of the provincial lots face eviction.
“We should learn from the lesson of our past. Now you’re going to evict 5,000 families? You think I still want to be mayor? Ayaw na lang. It’s the bloody truth, I wouldn’t want to be mayor in that situation,” he said.
As for the plans of Capitol to close more provincial roads in the city, Osmeña said he will not allow another closure.
“We will open it. Enough is enough. We will cite the general welfare clause of the law (the Local Government Code of 1991), that we have to protect the safety and convenience of the constituents,” he added. (LCR)
