Tuesday, July 03, 2007 Ignore Capitol threats: Tomas By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
MAYOR Tomas Os-meña began his final term yesterday by calling on the City Council and their constituents to focus on the needs of Cebu City, including the South Road Prop-erties (SRP), and ignore “threats of distraction” from the Capitol.
Osmeña and Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia are currently in a row that started over disagreements over a proposed land swap.
Osmeña said the City will do well if its officials and the community focus on helping Cebu City become self-sufficient and dynamic, as it did two years ago when political conflicts affected Manila.
But this time, the distraction is coming from the Provincial Government, he said.
More dangerous
“We are again faced with distraction of a much closer and therefore more dangerous situation. The media features it as a personal fight, of course not. We were friends until she threatened the forcible eviction and homelessness of 5,000 Cebu City families,” said the mayor.
In his inaugural address, Osmeña said the City can progress without the Province’s help and the businesses it can bring to the city.
He also talked about succeeding with and improving the SRP, which he said will host movie companies, outsourcing firms and a mix-use development project. It will also have a state-of-the art air-conditioning system using lithium bromide.
Osmeña pledged that as the city transforms the SRP into a world-class facility, City Hall will not leave the urban poor and other marginal sectors behind, particularly occupants of Capitol-owned lots.
For the mayor, the City’s and the Province’s principles are different, as shown by Capitol’s move to evict urban poor settlers and prioritize development of their properties.
“We can prosper even without the Ciudad project and we are going to defend those that will be severely traumatized and dislocated because of the movement of the Provincial Government,” said Osmeña.
“We will not allow ourselves to be distracted. We are going to give the City the leadership it deserves. Remember that we are constitutionally independent from the Province. We do not need the assistance of the Province. The province has most of its property in the city. They need the assistance of the City. It’s there problem, not ours,” he said.
In an interview after yesterday’s inaugural session, the mayor said he will wait for the Province to move before he decides on the fate of Ciudad, the Capitol’s development project along Gov. Cuenco Ave.
“We’ll see first what they will do with the 4,000 families and then they can taste what we can do to them. They’re not the only ones who can say ‘Watch me’,” Osmeña told reporters.
Osmeña also talked about teamwork and how the SRP will help Cebu City continue to soar.
Aside from the P2 billion to P4 billion the City Government will make from the sale of 30 hectares of land, the City will also earn some P300,000 per hectare a month in royalties from the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco).
Royalties
For the electricity Veco will supply to SRP locators, it will pay the City Government some 40 centavos per kilowatt-hour.
Osmeña said that with the export zone status given to the SRP, the City can provide power supply to the locators. But since it does not have the facility and expertise, the City will sign an agreement with Veco for the latter to supply electricity in exchange for royalties.
“With the SRP, we now have the means to take off and with us focusing on the needs of the city, Cebu City will continue to soar. Like the proverbial old man and his ugly mountain, let us continue to help create more useful terraces in that mountain, to make it useful for future generations. Little by little, sooner than later we will reach our dream of making Cebu City a viable place in the world,” Osmeña said.
