Thursday, May 08, 2008 Local officials can no longer question reclamation project: Lapu attorney
PRESIDENT Arroyo already approved the P10-billion proposed Mactan reclamation and local officials should no longer questions its implementation, Lapu-Lapu City Attorney Joseph Vincent Lim said yesterday.
Lim criticized Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia for questioning the implementation of the proposed Mactan North Reclamation and Development Project.
Lim said that since President Arroyo already approved the project, local authorities should no longer question its implementation.
And if Governor Garcia insists on questioning it, she should raise her complaint directly to Malacañang, he said.
“This project already has the approval of the President. If the President has approved the project, who else could question it?” Lim told reporters yesterday.
Sun.Star Cebu tried to call lawyer Rory Jon Sepulveda, Capitol consultant on information and revenue generation, but he could not be reached for comment.
During a meeting with members of the Mactan-Cebu Bridge Management Board (MCBMB) last Monday, Garcia said the reclamation project bypassed several government
agencies.
Lapu-Lapu City Government officials entered into and signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) without consulting local authorities, she said.
“This is very, very near the airport and there could be an effect on the operations of the airport. The airport has its own expansion plans that may not be in consonance with the proposed reclamation project,” said Governor Garcia.
National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) 7 Director Marlene Rodriguez agreed, adding that the area to be reclaimed is also near the Mactan Channel.
“It constricts the channel, the movement of sea lanes will be affected,” said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez also questioned how the City got PRA to sign a MOA when government agencies here were not even informed about the project.
“This is not a simple development. It should have gone through the process,” said Rodriguez.
She said the project should have the approval of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Cebu Port Authority (CPA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Also, the project should have the endorsement of the Provincial Development Council, Regional Development Council (RDC) and the Cebu Provincial Reclamation Authority.
“It seemed that the RDC was inadvertently forgotten. This affects the entire Island of Cebu, we are not talking of one particular highly urbanized city... All of these were done without consultations,” Garcia said.
“We will in fact make our positions known very clearly, unequivocally, in so far as Cebu Province is concerned and in so far as the Cebu Provincial Reclamation Authority is concerned, the RDC, MCBMB and the airport authority,” the governor said.
But Lim expressed surprise on why Capitol is questioning the proposed reclamation project only at this time, when the PRA and the City Government already signed the MOA.
Lim also said that it is not true that they did not consult other agencies on the proposed project, saying they informed both the CPA and NEDA through a letter.
Both agencies, he said, did not have any objection to the implementation of the reclamation project.
Lim said that if the project is pursued, it will increase the revenue collection of the City Government.
He insisted that Lapu-Lapu City is a highly-urbanized city, so it does not need to ask permission from the Province for whatever plans they have for the development of the city.
In the same interview, Lim also questioned the authority of the MCBMB, which is chaired by Governor Garcia, in coming up with suggestions on how to maintain the two bridges.
He believes the CPA knows what is best for the old and new Mactan-Cebu bridges. (GMD/DRT of Sun.Star Super Balita)
