Sunday, July 01, 2007 Dispute echoes Pabling-Serging quarrel in 1956 By Jeanette P. Malinao Sun.Star Staff Reporter
PEOPLE may think the ongoing conflict between Cebu City and the Province is the first time their relations have turned sour, but it is not.
What Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia are going through right now seems to be a repeat of what happened in 1956, when their fathers tangled over provincial properties.
That year, Pablo “Pabling” Garcia sued Tomas’ father, then Cebu City mayor Sergio “Serging” Osmeña Jr., to get back all provincial properties donated to the City by a “Serging allies-dominated” Provincial Board.
Pabling filed the complaint as a taxpayer. (He began serving yesterday a fresh term as congressman of Cebu Province’s second district.)
The donation was made by the PB members and then vice governor Priscillano Almendras, who were “friends” with Serging, when then governor Rene Espina was out of the country.
Capitol consultant on information and revenue generation Rory Jon Sepulveda narrated this based on court records and from the recollection of former governor Garcia.
Espina, who was then on a study tour to the United States because of a grant, left the Province in the care of Almendras as acting governor.
It was in Espina’s absence when the PB authorized the acting governor, through a resolution, to donate all provincial properties to the City.
It was supposedly the Province’s way of assisting the City in its preparation for an international gathering that was to be held here that year.
“Gihubu-an ang Province (They practically stripped the Province),” Sepulveda quoted Pabling as narrating.
The City auctioned the lots immediately and when Espina arrived from the US, he discussed the matter with his “friends,” who included Pabling.
They then decided to sue—with Pabling as a complaining taxpayer because the PB was “not sympathetic”—Serging and the City Government to recover all properties.
The municipalities, whose interests were affected because of the Capitol’s donation of all of its properties, also intervened in the case.
They were able to get an injunction from the Regional Trial Court in Barili town.
The injunction prevented the City from auctioning off a second batch of Capitol properties.
Negotiations led to an amicable settlement, wherein the City could keep the properties that were already auctioned off to private individuals, and the Province would get back the rest.
Given this background, Sepulveda said their move to recover Capitol properties is not new.
“Dili ni nga bawi-un sa (This is not being taken back by the) Province, kay gibawi na ni daan (Because this had been taken back in the past),” he said.
Sepulveda also cited that the Province even has a history of helping Cebu City.
For one, he said, the PB lifted the condition on the donation of a Capitol lot beside the Cebu Waterfront Hotel in Barangay Lahug.
He said the donation was on the condition that it must be used for a park, but Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia approved of Mayor Osmeña’s request to lift the donation so the City could exchange the donated property with a lot for a school in Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe.
The Capitol also donated the lot for a new city jail in Barangay Kalunasan, donated the lot where the Cebu City public library is located and allowed the use, as a sidewalk, of the Capitol lot along Cebu Doctors’ Hospital and the lot where Busay Barangay Hall stands, among others.
“So you cannot say that the Capitol just takes and takes. Historically and traditionally, the Capitol has always been on the giving side,” said Sepulveda.
Just recently, Sepulveda announced that the Capitol is offering “outstretched a hand in compassion” to help Cebu City sort out its problems with the South Road Properties.(JPM)
