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Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Mayor prods Arroyo to recall friar lands bill
CEBU CITY -- Even as Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña handed to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a letter informing her that the friar lands bill passed by Congress includes lots claimed by Cebu Province, Capitol officials showed a document that provincial lots are not covered by the measure.
Representative Raul del Mar, who sponsored the bill, confirmed that Osmeña's letter, which was supported by newspaper clippings of recent articles about the issue, was received by the President, who was in Cebu for a call center event, the opening of an international furniture exhibit and a thanksgiving reception.
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"I don't know about that letter and it's hard to make general statements. It's better that we go to specifics so it's clear if opinions are warranted," said Governor Gwendolyn Garcia when asked about Osmeña's letter to the President.
Del Mar (Cebu City, north district) said that the mayor just wanted the President to be aware of the properties involved in the bill because she did not know about this when she certified the bill as urgent.
Banilad friar lands were brought up because at least 45 titles to be validated by the bill are held by the Capitol and reportedly cover properties that would have been covered with the lot swap with the City Government.
But Capitol has dropped the lot swap and decided to deal with some 2,725 occupants individually.
Capitol consultant Pablo John Garcia said Osmeña's insistence on being part of Capitol's intended negotiations with Ordinance 93-1 beneficiaries is "so suspect."
"If this is manna from heaven, why are they acting as if this is the plague?" Pablo John said.
Ordinance 93-1 allows occupants of Province-owned lots spread over 11 Cebu City barangays to buy the properties. But since more than half of the 5,000 beneficiaries failed to pay before the September 2004 deadline, they were issued eviction notices.
Former Cebu governor Pablo Garcia said the Capitol will not be affected even if President Arroyo vetoes the bill, which for him deals only with occupants whose documents were burned during the war.
The Friar Lands Act, which was approved by the Senate last week, will become law 30 days after it is sent to the Office of the President, even if President Arroyo does not sign it.
The Cebu Provincial Government bought some 600 hectares that were part of friar lands, but these are not subject to the recent bill confirming the validity of existing titles, Capitol officials said Monday.
The Province showed a copy of an executive order dated June 2, 1918 signed by then governor-general Francis Burton Harrison, who was then equivalent to today's President.
The order conveyed some 600 hectares to the Province for P32,930.
Pablo, the governor's father, said the Capitol is not in the same situation with other landowners who are holding titles that do not bear the signature of the then secretary of interior. This technicality "raised a cloud of doubt over the titles when in fact there should be none," the bill read.
But since the Capitol is holding an executive order that was like "a direct act of the President" and has since been considered equal to law, Pablo John said Mayor Osmeña will be "wrong" to question Capitol ownership.
Osmeña's move of raising the issue on validity of ownership of those holding friar lands is "worse" than the moratorium on Banilad, he said.
It is like a moratorium on the whole of Cebu City's north district, most of which belonged to friar lands, because no investors would like to invest in areas where ownership of lands is doubtful, Pablo John said.
At City Hall, City Administrator Francisco Fernandez disagreed with Capitol's opinion that the friar land issue is blackmail.
He said blackmail is illegal and the friar land issue is just an added pressure for Capitol to think the lot swap issue over.
Fernandez explained that Mayor Osmeña only wanted the bill vetoed and amended to exclude the Province-owned lots.
"The mayor did not know that he will have problems later with the Province-owned lots. In fact, had the swap pushed through, the City would have been the beneficiary of del Mar's bill because (it will already own the Province's property)," he said.
The mayor, Fernandez said, is hoping that the Supreme Court ruling on lot 727 or the Cebu Country Club lot will be applied on the lots occupied by the National Government agencies.
"If the Supreme Court ruled that lot 727 is owned by the National Government, then this can be applied if similar cases are filed on these lots. Thus, if the Province-owned lots will be excluded in the bill, the mayor will only have to deal with the National Government agencies and not with Capitol," he explained.
"We are just for the amendment of the bill," Fernandez said.
Congressman del Mar, however, said this might not happen.
"My personal opinion is that it is unlikely for the President to veto the bill because she already certified it as urgent. The mayor, for his part, is just apprising her of the properties involved," del Mar told Sun.Star Cebu Monday night.
"We fight our own battles. We solve our own problems," Governor Garcia said for her part.
In separate interviews, City Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem, City Protocol Officer Nagiel Bañacia and Fernandez also confirmed that the mayor gave the note to the President Monday morning at the Cebu City Waterfront Hotel.
But the President did not take up the matter with the mayor.
Jakosalem, the only city councilor invited to the thanksgiving dinner with the organizers of the 12th Asean summit, sat at the same table with Arroyo, Osmeña, the mayor's wife Margot, Governor Garcia and del Mar at the Malacañang sa Sugbo Monday night.
"No. I don't think so because there was nothing really serious, just pleasantries and casual talk. The President thanked all the organizers, the hotel managers and every one behind the summit," Jakosalem said. (GAC and JPM of Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Baguio. (February 27, 2007 issue)
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