Thursday, May 15, 2008 Speak out: Mayor Radaza’s P10-billion dream By Efrain T. Pelaez Jr. President, MICCI
LAPU-LAPU City Mayor Arturo Radaza does not seem to get it.
Recently, he announced a P10-billion Mactan North Reclamation Project consisting of 400 hectares at the Magellan Bay foreshore area.
The City Council hurriedly passed a resolution authorizing him to negotiate in behalf of the city and approved the project.
Someone in Malacañang must also be working overtime as liaison to ram through this project because a memorandum of agreement was recently signed by the Philippine Reclamation Authority, Lapu-Lapu City and Malacañang.
How else would a mayor who is being charged with graft cases be now entrusted with a P10-billion project? Have we all gone crazy?
Existing reclamation projects in Cebu and Mandaue cities still have to prove their worth and pay their way.
The original reclamation project from White Gold House to SM in the north and Plaza Independencia in the south has some
of the most blighted squatter colonies in Metro Cebu.
The Mandaue reclamation of F.F. Cruz is still largely undeveloped, 20 years or so after it started. The same goes for the South Road Properties, which has been a financial drain on Cebu City.
Copycat
Are the Lapu-lapu residents and taxpayers ready to trust Radaza with this megadeal?
He cannot even fix, much less improve, the roads of the city and clean up the garbage with his P600 million plus yearly budget – most of which goes to payroll for friends, allies and employees with dubious backgrounds and experience.
Let me inform Radaza that long before he had that reclamation dream, other proponents like Johan Bhd. of Malaysia and I had proposed the 400-hectare project in the early ‘90s during the first term of Mayor Ernest Weigel.
A copycat cannot claim authorship of the idea or the dream.
Aside from warring Osmeña brothers Lito and Sonny having their own ideas about the project and the intervening Asian economic crisis, most of the proponents have realized the impracticality of the project.
Even the proposed Cordova reclamation has undergone several promotional mutations without success. The only ones interested are promoters who want to make a quick buck and fat commissions from the deal.
Delays
Realistically, Radaza cannot even start the reclamation project before his term ends in two years, nor will he ever see it finished. His time is also running out.
Faced with additional suspensions from the lamp post, computer and other cases, that time may be sooner than you think.
Environmental studies, court challenges, conflict with the airport runway extension, funding issues, opposition from business groups, etc. will also surely delay its implementation. Gov. Gwen Garcia has publicly opposed the deal.
Even if private developers and funding can be found, will this not become another Amari deal that never got off the ground despite the scandal-plagued backing of two presidents and where billions were allegedly paid in kickbacks?
Moreover, what assurance can a mayor in his last term offer to legitimate proponents?
Defense
I suggest that Radaza wake up from his somnolence and stop dreaming about mega projects and face reality by attending to his legal defense in the Sandiganbayan and his response to the charges in the Ombudsman.
If he has no sin, I will be the first one to apologize to him and parade him through town on my shoulders like the Birhen de Regla that he worships.
