Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Let Lapu recla push through: Tomas
LAPU-LAPU City Mayor Arturo Radaza seems to be getting support for their reclamation project from an unlikely ally—Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
For Osmeña, Lapu-Lapu City should be allowed to pursue its P10-billion reclamation project and its officials should not allow the governor’s jealousy to get in their way.
Osmeña said the Regional Development Council (RDC), chaired by Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, should not suppress projects initiated by local government units (LGUs), especially if it would mean progress for the locality.
The Mactan North Reclamation and Development Project (MNRDP) was reportedly approved by President Arroyo but was neither endorsed by the RDC nor approved by
the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
‘Jealous’
“As far as I know, this is the first case where the RDC is suppressing local government initiative…If you ask me, and I only read the news, she (Garcia) is just jealous,” Osmeña told a news conference yesterday.
“Why would she concentrate on destroying a project? Why doesn’t she get her own project? What is she doing, dancing inmates? What is that? At least Lapu-Lapu can get something done,” he continued.
Radaza was once a subject of Osmeña’s tirades when the lamppost controversy came out.
Yesterday, Osmeña said that unlike the Provincial Government, whose proposed trans-axial highway is doomed, Lapu-Lapu City is working on an actual project.
“Look at her trans-axial highway, it flopped. That’s why she’s quiet about it, because it’s dead,” he said.
Benefit
Osmeña admitted that he has not studied the proposed MNRDP but he believes it will be good for Lapu-Lapu City as it will give them more land.
He said, though, that the project is far from implementation, recalling that it took several years for the South Reclamation Project to be implemented, which he first proposed in 1989.
Last July 25, the RDC passed a resolution opposing the Mactan reclamation project, citing its proponents’ failure to follow the process in proposing it.
Officials of the RDC raised the Lapu-Lapu City Government’s failure to consult stakeholders in the preparation, review and approval of the project. It also did not consult neighboring local governments and concerned agencies, they said.
But yesterday, Osmeña said that the RDC’s endorsement is not necessary for the reclamation project to be approved by the Neda.
“Normally, Neda will ask for endorsement of the RDC but it’s not necessary. So the Lapu-Lapu City mayor just has to insist that at least, it’s not mandatory for the RDC to endorse a project, although it’s customary to get endorsement,” he explained.
No powers
“And if it does not require funding from the National Government, it might not even be necessary to get approval from Neda... So it now depends on how Radaza fights it out. Remember that the RDC has no executive powers,” he continued.
Osmeña believes that Garcia is jealous of the project because she will not get credit for it.
Although the RDC said earlier that they are not against the project itself and that only the process is being questioned, the mayor said that “it’s the same banana.”
“She’s jealous for the simple reason that it’s not her project. She can’t stand that some people can get it approved and she’s not getting credit for it,” he added. (LCR)
