CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña now has the support of majority of councilors. This means he can begin to pursue the projects the previous council majority tried hard to derail.
Apparently, the mayor wants to accomplish first the sale of a three-hectare parcel of the South Road Project (SRP) at P110,000 per square meter. When this pushes through, it will prove the earlier sale during the time of former mayor Mike Rama at P38,000 per square meter was very cheap. It will help the mayor’s efforts to rescind the earlier contract.
As Mayor Osmeña accomplishes what he wants to do, funders of the opposition will realize their efforts are futile. They might as well help the mayor now and postpone political maneuvers when 2019 nears.
Curiously, one official said he will resign if the mayor can find a buyer. Let’s see if he is true to his word.
u2022••
Critics of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) missed something so obvious. Malacañang has already given the go signal for the implementation of the BRT project. One does not need a feasibility study to know this. Ma-Google ra man unta.
The Duterte administration, through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) allocated a total of P847.2 billion for infrastructure projects that includes the BRT project in Cebu. In fact, implementation has already begun. Transportation Secretary Art Tugade is even pushing for Manila BRT Lines 1 and 2.
Instead of trying to shoot down the BRT and appear to contradict the administration, we might as well unite to support it. Cebu can have both the BRT and the LRT.
u2022••
The Bureau of Customs has filed a smuggling case against six executives of Moving Forward, an importing company responsible for bringing into the country a shipload of garbage to the Port of Cebu from South Korea.
The shipment arrived last January 2, 2017 at the Port of Cebu on board MV Christina and was declared to contain 2,500 metric tons of wood chips and 2,500 metric tons of recycled synthetic resins.
However, customs officials found out that the supposed synthetic resins turned to be hazardous “plastic heterogenous materials” estimated to be worth P4.87 million.
The Bureau’s Action Team Against Smugglers (BATAS) said Moving Forward violated the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act of 2016, the DENR Administration Order (AO) 1994-28 or the “Interim Guidelines in the Importation of Recyclable Materials Containing Hazardous Substances, and the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
Verne Enciso, Bureau of Customs-Port of Cebu Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service intelligence officer (CIIS), said the hazardous waste had been shipped back to Korea on board cargo ship M/V Christina on March 15. The wood chips that were placed atop the bales of plastic garbage remained at the Port of Cebu, however, and subject for auction after the DENR found it was not hazardous, Enciso said.