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Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Cebu mayor may shut out 2 councilors in land swap talks
By Linette C. Ramos
With Jeanette P. Malinao
CEBU CITY -- For the first time since the conflict over the proposed land swap deal arose, the Cebu City Council sat down with Mayor Tomas Osmeña Tuesday night to iron out some aspects of the deal.
Details of the two-hour meeting, however, were not made available to Sun.Star Cebu after the meeting, since the City officials agreed only the mayor will discuss the agreement with the media.
"The mayor will take care of it," two city councilors said Tuesday.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama and Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera joined the meeting despite the mayor's tirade against them Tuesday morning.
Since they "screwed up" the land swap deal, Osmeña is considering excluding Rama and Pesquera from the negotiations with the Province.
An irate Osmeña said he was insulted by Rama and Pesquera's statements and actions, so as far as the land swap deal is concerned, he will consider the two as "opposition."
"One possibility is to keep the vice mayor and Joy Pesquera out of this altogether. Let them be the opposition then I'll talk to the Province. It's really difficult to negotiate if Mike Rama and Joy Pesquera will be there. I don't even want to try, mauwaw gyud ko (I'd be too embarrassed). If they're there, patay gyud ta (we'll never have that deal)," Osmeña told reporters Tuesday noon.
Rama, for his part, preferred not to comment on the mayor's statements, saying he no longer wants to add to everything that has been said about the proposed deal.
For now, the mayor said he does not know what actions to take until he finds out from the City Council where he stands in the administration.
What is certain, he said, is that he will not abandon the land swapping, which he proposed to the Province last year, because he has committed it to the 5,000 urban poor families occupying Province-owned lots.
He also said he will repackage the whole deal to make it more attractive to the Province once the negotiations begin.
Osmeña said the negotiations for the land swap will be a "trial separation" between him and Rama and Pesquera.
"The vice mayor screwed up the whole thing. He screwed up a major portion of our agenda and now, I'm still trying to analyze what we're going to do because the Province closed the door to all negotiations," he said.
But Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia sees no reason to budge in her stand to drop the proposed land swap deal, even if the Cebu City Council is now inclined to adopt it.
"I will not be made a part of their pathetic attempt at damage control. They bungled this, and that's it. End of story," said Garcia. "Now, watch me... Mulihok nang kilat ron. Enough said."
Not even protests from residents could change the governor's mind, as she said everybody is entitled to his own action.
Now that Garcia and the Provincial Board (PB) have decided to drop the land swap deal, Osmeña said he will just leave it to the "bright" vice mayor to solve the matter.
"I want to ask, is Mike Rama vice mayor to Tomas Osmeña or is he vice mayor to Joy Pesquera? I really don't know the answer to that. It's very clear to me that many of the actions he has taken against me are inspired by Joy Pesquera," he said.
Aside from delaying the land swap, Osmeña also blamed Pesquera for delays in the approval of some tax ordinances and the approval of the ordinance on the police alarm system.
While he does not want it to happen, Osmeña said Rama and Pesquera's position on the land swap deal could be a reason for them to drift apart.
"This is a very serious problem and this could be a reason but I don't want it to happen, but I also can't be a mayor under these circumstances when there's another mayor down there. There is a dysfunction here and I can't operate like this," he added.
Even if he blames the results on Rama, Osmeña said he feels he is accountable for the outcome of the proposed land swapping.
Instead of jeopardizing the City's projects, the mayor asked the council "to build bridges instead of walls" and work towards economic cooperation with the Province.
Governor Garcia and Mayor Tomas Osmeña sat at one table in Tuesday's meeting of the Mactan Cebu Management Board (MCBMB), but Garcia said nothing was said between them on the land swap deal: "I was presiding so I couldn't engage in small talk."
Osmeña went to the Capitol only to sign the articles of the incorporation of MCBMB, an act that could not be delegated.
Garcia announced the dropping of the proposed deal last Monday, after which the Province Board also expressed a request for the governor to withdraw from the negotiations.
Lot occupants had until May 2004 to pay for the land, and the Capitol has ruled out yet another extension.
Capitol consultant Pablo John Garcia said the Capitol has bent over backwards long enough for the residents, who got the chance to pay for the lots in 1993 yet.
It's time that the Province took care of its own constituents, he said.
The Province could have moved for the residents' eviction in Ordinance 93-1 areas when Garcia assumed office, but Pablo John said the governor accommodated the request of Osmeña.
Yet the negotiations have dragged on for two years now, and the Capitol's integrity has even been questioned.
The governor's consultant said: "Now the residents should come knocking on the doors of Rama and Pesquera and ask: Mayor Tomas Osmeña had a plan for us, Governor Garcia was willing to accommodate the plan, but you bungled it. Now what is your plan for us?'" (Sun.Star Cebu)
(March 22, 2006 issue)
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