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Sunday, June 24, 2007
Ex-guv says Capitol ‘owns entire South Bus Terminal lot’
By Rene H. Martel and Garry A. Cabotaje
With Jeanette P. Malinao
CEBU CITY -- Representative Eduardo Gullas (1st district, Cebu) said Saturday Cebu City does not own “even a single portion” of the disputed Cebu South Bus Terminal (CSBT) lot on N. Bacalso Ave.
He said this after Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s ultimatum for the Capitol to turn over half to three-fourths of the 9,000-square-meter terminal to the City Government within 15 days.
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“It’s a Province-owned lot. Not a single square meter belongs to any other….Not a single portion belongs to Cebu City. It’s one titled Central Bank lot,” said Gullas.
The property, he said, was swapped with a provincial lot in Nivel Hills, Cebu City during his stint as Cebu governor in the early 1980s. That Lahug property is located beside the former Cebu Plaza, now Marco Polo Plaza Hotel, he added.
Gullas was an appointed governor from 1976 to 1980, and was elected governor from 1980 to 1986.
“I don’t want to enter into the scene, but it is my duty to inform the Cebuanos,” Gullas said in a press conference.
‘Roadkill’
Bus operators, who likewise do not want to join the fray, are nevertheless getting dragged into the controversy.
Bus owner Nicholas Villahermosa said they will just adopt a “wait and see” attitude in the ongoing conflict between Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Mayor Osmeña. Villahermosa heads the Cebu Provincial Bus Operators’ Association.
Although the Province-owned lot in Nivel Hills was bigger, Gullas considered the deal a fair one because the N. Bacalso lot was a prized property.
The lot swap, he said, was made because he planned then to construct a regional government center (in the area that hosts the terminal now) to house all regional offices in one building.
“The regional offices were scattered all over the city…. (With a regional government center), the people who would transact business with the National Economic Development Agency, the Department of Public Works and Highways, could visit only one building,” said Gullas, a former Regional Development Council chairman.
The deal also earned the approval of the late president Ferdinand Marcos, he added.
Complaint
Villahermosa, for his part, said the bus operators hope they will not suffer from the fallout, especially after Osmeña said he will close the center island across the CSBT to prevent crossing buses from blocking traffic.
“That would be like closing the terminal because if the mayor closes off the center island, there’s nowhere for the buses to go,” Villahermosa said.
But Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) executive officer Arnel Tancinco said he talked with the mayor Saturday and explained to him the effects of preventing buses from crossing N. Bacalso Ave. in going to the south from the terminal.
“I think dili na madayon. (I don’t think it will push through),” Tancinco said. “I already explained to him the implications. He asked me what the City should do, and I told him the complaint was not that big of a deal.”
Tancinco was referring to a complaint from a group of mini-bus drivers and operators asking that another group should be barred from reaching the terminal.
They said the other group adds to the number of mini-buses going to the terminal, causing congestion on N. Bacalso Ave.
Just a study
Villahermosa said Saturday they will not make any move, like asking either party to spare them or the riding public, unless things take a turn for the worse.
“But we will look for a way to protect our interest,” he said.
He added that he talked with City Planning Officer Paul Villarete and was assured that the City’s intention to move the terminal elsewhere is something that will not happen soon.
Villarete, he added, just wanted the traffic situation on N. Bacalso to be formally studied, and the possibility of moving the terminal to be explored as a possible solution.
Tancinco clarified that the proposal to transfer the terminal surfaced again only because the Citom board discussed the complaint by a group of mini-bus operators and drivers.
He asked the Capitol to understand that they in Citom are just doing their job and “it just so happens nga ang among amo (that our boss) is Mayor Osmeña.”
Interests?
But at the Capitol, newly elected congressman Pablo John Garcia said Cebu City’s renewed claim on the CSBT is just Osmeña’s “diversionary tactic” to steer the issue away from the One Citilink Terminal’s “monopoly.”
“A few days ago he was professing support for one Cebu and now, a few days later, he says he doesn’t care about the residents of the south. So the big question is, is he for one Cebu or is he for One Citilink?” asked Pablo John.
“I know Mayor Osmeña is trying to avoid the One Citilink issue because that’s a can of worms that he has opened by harassing the South Bus Terminal. It’s all a tactic to divert people’s attention from the One Citilink issue,” said Pablo John.
He earlier said a group claiming to be close to Osmeña has been wanting to move against the CSBT, being One Citilink’s competition.
One Citilink, located a block away from the CSBT, caters to intra-city and out-of-town public utility vehicles, including mini-buses.
‘Avid fan’
For her part, the governor said she is “elated” that Osmeña is an “avid fan” of her ideas so she would like to give another one for him.
“Check it out and verify, then shoot. That’s how it works and not the other way around,” she said.
Earlier, Osmeña said it was the Province that gave him an idea to recover the property as the Capitol has been recovering properties also.
Gullas, too, advised Osmeña’s staff to conduct a thorough research first.
“The work of the executive staff is very important. I would respectfully advise them to study well so their boss would not make a mistake,” he said.
Gullas has been at odds with Osmeña following Talisay’s claim over 53.44 hectares of Cebu City’s 295-hectare reclaimed South Road Properties.
Pressure
It was during his term as Talisay City mayor that he insisted on the former town’s territorial claims over part of the reclamation project.
Gullas, former Cebu Provincial Engineering head Pat Bacay, and ex-provincial development coordinator Edgar Sibonga could not recall the exact sizes of the swapped properties.
But these, the congressman said, can be verified at the Cebu Province properties office.
Capitol officials recently said that the City owns only a little over 1,000 square meters of the whole terminal area.
Citom, for its part, is also sitting on a Province-owned lot.
If the Capitol will take back the lot, Citom can do nothing but yield, said Tancinco.(Sun.Star Cebu)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (June 24, 2007 issue)
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