Thursday, July 19, 2007 Capitol to file mandamus case v. CH over Ciudad project
THE Cebu Provincial Government will file a petition for mandamus against the Cebu City Government “to require them to perform their ministerial duty.”
This after the Fifth Avenue consortium, the company that will develop the Province-owned lot in Banilad, Cebu City into a commercial center failed to get a locational clearance from City Hall.
The firm has submitted all the documentary requirements but still they failed to get the clearance.
“(Monday) was the deadline to do what they could but obviously, their attempts didn’t work out. So we’ll go to court because we still believe in the rule of the law even if some may not and we still believe that no one is above the law even if some pretends to be,” Garcia said.
Fifth Avenue will be investing P2 billion to make a commercial complex and a hotel on the Banilad lot.
It was supposed to start its construction last November but the City has not issued the necessary clearance.
The relationship between the City and Capitol turned sour after the failed attempt to exchange lots for the security of tenure to city residents who are occupying province-owned lots.
But the City said that the withholding of the clearances has nothing to do with the conflict between the City and the Province but because of the traffic problems in Banilad area.
In a study made for the project, Fifth Avenue Development Corp. said that the existing heavy traffic along Gov. Cuenco Ave. from Talamban to the Cebu Business Park is “caused primarily and summarily by the combination of small and medium businesses on both sides of the road.”
It said that while five big establishments contribute to daily traffic, “there are likewise hundreds of small and medium edifices, mostly commercial establishments, all along the two-kilometer stretch.”
One feature of the project’s floor plan showed that pocket lanes will be constructed so that PUJs unloading passengers going for Ciudad would not hamper traffic when stopping by the roadside.
With a circumferential road, the PUJs will travel all the way to the side, going inside the structure.(MBG)
