Saturday, October 04, 2008 Tomas bares benefits for owners to lower price
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña dangled yesterday some benefits the Aznar family can get if they agree to the plan to develop their properties in Barangay Toong as a relocation site for the urban poor.
Osmeña said the proposed project will be difficult to implement, and it might take five years before it can take off.
If the Aznar family agrees to sell their lots to the City for a price lower than its current market value, the mayor plans to create a new barangay there, which will serve as a settlement for the urban poor.
The City is looking at some 100 hectares of land owned by the Aznars in Toong as an “urban poor city.”
Osmeña said he will push for the construction of a highway from the South Road Properties (SRP) to Barangay Pobla-cion Pardo, to give the public better access to Toong.
Illegal occupants of the properties of the Aznars in the north district will also be prioritized as beneficiaries of the relocation project in the mountain barangay.
“This is going to be a difficult project but it can be done. It has to make sense to them (Aznars) and not just to us,” the mayor told a news conference yesterday.
City Hall has been negotiating with the Aznars as early as the late 1990s, but nothing has been agreed on so far, he said.
“All of this will make sense to them if we provide a road there because the value of their land will shoot up, and if the first to relocate are those occupying their lots in the north district. And then, of course, the value of their golf course will increase,” Osmeña said.
The proposed highway will exit right after the Aznar-owned Alta Vista Golf and Country Club in Pardo, which is seen to make the property more accessible, especially for those coming from the SRP.
Businessman Crisologo Saavedra, a relative of the Aznars, visited the mayor yesterday to discuss the proposed projects.
Last week, City Administrator Francisco Fernandez visited the site in Toong with Saavedra and other representatives of the Aznar family to discuss the matter.
With several buyers interested in the SRP, the mayor believes the City is now in the position to finalize talks with the Aznars.
“Everything is still subject for discussion, but there is something of mutual interest here. This is not an overnight thing, it will take years to work out but it’s feasible... maybe in five years,” Osmeña said yesterday. (LCR)
