Saturday, July 12, 2008 Tomas slams governor’s Sopa, won’t trade places with Garcias
CEBU Province may be debt-free, but it also doesn’t have a 290-hectare economic and industrial area like the South Road Properties (SRP).
This is how Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña reacted to Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s State of the Province Address (Sopa), where she reported that unlike other local government units (LGUs) in the country, the Provincial Government has no debt.
In her 45-minute speech last Thursday night, the governor enumerated the projects and programs of Capitol and hinted of the mayor’s “obvious envy of the Province.”
Governor Garcia also made thinly veiled criticisms of the SRP. Unlike the Province, she said, another LGU is still paying for the loan it incurred for a project that is “just lying there empty, save for some migratory birds, and has not earned a single centavo for the people.”
The City Government has yet to close a deal on the sale of a lot at the SRP. Some 11 years after the loan for the SRP was made, the City has so far earned only P25 million from the facility, representing Bigfoot Global Solutions’ 25-year lease payment for two hectares.
But even with the Province’s assets amounting to P17 billion as of 2007 and a surplus of P1.3 billion, Osmeña said he does not want to be in the governor’s place.
“Envy? True, the Province has no debt. But they also don’t have an SRP. I’m not willing to exchange places. Isn’t it the Garcias who want to move into the city? If they had their way, the City will wake up someday to the inauguration of a Fuente Garcia circle,” he said in a text message sent to Sun.Star Cebu. The mayor was in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on official business yesterday.
The mayor also criticized the Province’s Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) for competing with the services provided by private businesses.
He pointed out that the facility was built at a cost of P700 million but has so far earned only P32 million, as reported by the governor in her Sopa. That figure represented earnings from January 2007 to June 2008.
“The CICC earned P32 million? How much did it cost to operate it, P700 million including a leaking roof? The revenues earned only competed with and deprived the private Cebuano establishments who also cater to weddings and conventions. You spend P700 million to compete with Cebuano businesses, and the governor is proud of it,” Osmeña said.
As for the P6-billion SRP: “It will still be there in the next millennium or two,” he said.
Osmeña also said he anticipates that another proposed project of the Capitol, the multi-billion trans-axial highway, will be a flop.
The planned four-lane highway will traverse Daanbantayan to Santander. The acquisition of the road right-of-way alone is projected to cost P440 million, while the construction and widening of the trans-axial highway will require P6.11 billion. As of February this year, Cebu Vice Gov. Greg Sanchez reported that at least seven companies from seven countries have confirmed they were interested in the project.
“The backbone highway is a flop. No one will bid even one peso for it,” Osmeña said. (LCR)
