Sunday, March 23, 2008 Rama wants children's playground in Pasil
CEBU City Vice Mayor Michael Rama wants to convert what used to be the Pasil Fish Port’s ice making and refrigeration area into a children’s playground.
The refrigeration facility is no longer working, and the area is being used as parking space and an open toilet.
And aside from illegal structures used as homes and establishments, an illegal cockfight arena has been built there, he said.
“The Coastline Management Board has a plan for that place. There exists a facility that is not substantially being used. The Pasil Fish Port is in a state of disrepair,” the vice mayor said.
Markets
The fish port’s lessee does not need the refrigeration facility to operate the port because fish brought to Pasil from other places go straight to nearby markets, especially the Carbon Public Market.
A cooperative represented by Association of Barangay Councils president Eugenio Faelnar has offered to enter into an agreement with the City to operate the fish port.
The cooperative will lease the Pasil Fish Port and the City’s refrigeration facility for two years with a monthly rental of P2,000, which will be collected every three months.
Faelnar said they volunteered to manage the fish port after the mayor asked him and several other barangay captains to take care of it.
Cooperative
With Faelnar in managing the cooperative are Barangay Captains Jojo Sable (Suba) and Benjamin Zabate (Sawang Calero), and Barangay Captain-elect Rustom Ignacio (Inayawan).
According to the contract’s terms, the cooperative will make an advance payment and is allowed to sub-lease portions of the 2,106-square-meter fish port and 3,025-square-meter refrigeration facility.
The cooperative is also responsible for repairs needed for the fish port’s efficient operation.
Rama said a member of the Mayor’s Management Team is studying how to turn the area where the refrigeration facility is into a playground.
The facility was operated by a private firm, which has since left, while the structure was built through a grant from the Belgian government.
In a report last Wednesday, the committee on laws posed no objection for Mayor Tomas Osmeña to sign the lease contract with the cooperative. (RHM)
