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Monday, March 17, 2003
60-70 has. of SRP lot claimed by Talisay
By Jasmin G. Suma-oy
CEBU -- The Talisay City Government will claim part of the P2.8-billion South Reclamation Project (SRP) that supposedly falls within its territory.
Mayor Eduardo Gullas told Sun.Star Sunday that based on existing municipal boundary monuments, 60 to 70 hectares of the reclamation falls within the jurisdiction of Talisay.
But in a separate interview, SRP manager Paul Villarete said the delineation of municipal waters and land boundaries are “distinct and separate.”
Even assuming that part of the SRP falls within the territory of Talisay, he said, Talisay can only claim territorial jurisdiction but not ownership of the reclamation venture.
Villarete had pointed out that Talisay did not spend a single centavo for the project, for which the Cebu City Government incurred loans.
But Gullas said: “Let us just follow the municipal boundary monuments. Whether or not Talisay spent for the SRP is not an issue. Why can’t we claim ownership over the reclamation when it belongs to our area?”
“If you talk of ownership, (former) city administrator Paul Villarete (is not the right person to determine that because he) is not a lawyer,” the mayor added.
In name only
Cebu City has been working for the titling of the SRP in its name.
But for Gullas, “Cebu City can title everything within its jurisdiction. We’ll also do everything to protect the interest of Talisay. Wa mi’y sala nga diha na nang reclamation (Don’t blame us if the reclamation falls within our territory).”
But both Gullas and Villarete said the ownership of the SRP is not a reason for the officials of Cebu and Talisay cities to bicker.
“I don’t want to go on an extensive quarrel with Mayor Tomas Osmeña on the issue. Our cities have been cooperative with each other,” Gullas said.
Osmeña recently agreed to let Talisay dump its garbage at the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill starting next month. Talisay, on the other hand, has been accommodating Cebu City’s relocated urban poor families.
For his part, Villarete said it has been a common problem among local government units (LGUs) to have different maps. But the conflict could be easily settled if Cebu City and Talisay conduct a joint inspection on the land boundaries.
It was Talisay City Planning Officer Wilfredo Ramos who pointed out, during LGU negotiations on territorial seawater boundaries last month, that a municipal boundary monument of Talisay lies within the SRP.
Setting boundaries
The location of municipal boundary monument 30, which appears in the cadastral map of Talisay, according to Ramos, means that part of the SRP is within the jurisdiction of the Talisay City Government.
Last March 7, the Cebu City Council approved a resolution requesting the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (Namria) to initiate the drafting of the preliminary delineation of municipal waters of Cebu City.
Villarete, however, told Sun.Star the request has nothing to do with Talisay’s claim over the SRP.
Gullas has tasked an ad hoc committee to address the delineation of the municipal boundaries of Cebu City and Talisay, just like what it did with the boundaries of Talisay and Minglanilla.
Gullas also pointed out that the monuments that delineate the territories of LGUs just follow the same principle of the marker (mohon) used to assign boundaries of private lots.
The Cebu City Government availed itself of a P2.8-billion loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) in 1995 for the 240-hectare SRP.
Gullas: My idea
The Cebu City Government, which also put up a local counterpart fund for the project, started paying for the interest of the loan last year. The payment of the principal will start in 2005.
Gullas, however, said anybody who would bother to research on the SRP will find out it was his brainchild and the original plan was for a 330-hectare “Cebu City South and Talisay Reclamation.”
However, former Talisay mayors Dehlia Tiu and Socrates Fernandez were not keen about the project, he added.
The SRP’s size was reduced after it was redesigned in the course of its construction.
Now that he is mayor of Talisay, Gullas wants to pursue the reclamation project at the Talisay side.
He said he already discussed with Osmeña and Councilor Gabriel Leyson the idea of pursuing the original concept of having a reclamation, not only in Cebu City but also in Talisay.
Gullas revealed that he already informed JBIC about Talisay’s interest in the reclamation project. Sun.Star Cebu |
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