Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Tomas unity with Gwen to depend on swap deal
IT is desirable to have cooperation and unity between Cebu City and the Capitol, the mayor said, but he does not see it happening yet.
Not when the occupants of Provincial lots are at stake.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña said yesterday that until the Capitol can guarantee that occupants of Province-owned properties in the city will be allowed to own the lots they are occupying, the City cannot have a harmonious relationship with the Province.
“That is desirable but I won’t do it at the expense of the occupants of 93-1 lots. I don’t want to send the signal that the occupants are expendable. No, they are not expendable,” he said, when asked how important it is for the City to have a good working relationship with Capitol officials.
Negotiations
Earlier, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia called on officials of Compostela town and Mandaue City to stop bickering and to work together so as not to hamper services for their constituents.
Osmeña’s and Garcia’s falling out started in 2005, when negotiations to swap Capitol properties occupied by the City’s constituents with a City Hall-owned lot failed.
For the mayor, the situation of the occupants of lots covered by Provincial Ordinance 93-1 “is the basic obstacle to cooperation.”
Occupants
In his news conference yesterday, the mayor said that the Capitol’s decision to deal directly with the occupants still has not prospered.
“It’s not going anywhere, they (occupants) are just being dribbled around,” he said.
When she celebrates her birthday next month, Garcia is reportedly planning to give out the first batch of titles to occupants who have paid for their lots in full.
Capitol officials reportedly prioritized occupants of provincial lots in Barangay Lahug, whose officials are also at odds with the mayor.
Osmeña said he does not doubt that politics is behind the preference for Lahug, and the governor’s “double standard.”
“This is not generosity on the part of the governor. It is a moral and legal obligation that is long overdue. She makes it appear that she’s being generous when in fact, she’s just doing that because she’s in the process of being sued by the occupants,” the mayor added. (LCR)
