CEBU City’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) met with representatives of two bidders that expressed interest to purchase a three-hectare property in the South Road Properties (SRP) ahead of the scheduled bidding.
The discussion was part of the pre-bidding conference the BAC initiated on Wednesday, April 10, Assistant City Administrator Veronica Morelos said.
Although Morelos did not disclose the concerns raised by the interested bidders, she said the pre-bidding conference was done to ease the bidding process.
Morelos, who is also the chairperson of the committee on awards, said the bidding is scheduled on April 23.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the development is his administration’s way of making sure the transaction is above board.
The sale of the SRP lot became the subject of an argument between Osmeña and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, after the latter asked the mayor to present the buyers of the property, two years after he was authorized to sell it.
“Unlike what you did with the last administration where you rushed everything with midnight deals, my administration takes time to make sure everything is above board. The bidding process is set to begin this week. You are vice mayor and presiding officer of the City Council. You are supposed to know this. Do you not know this or are you just lying about it?” Osmeña said in a Facebook post.
But for opposition Councilor Joel Garganera, who is an ally of Labella, the development is long overdue.
“We’ve given the mayor the authority to dispose the said property 30 months ago. It’s long overdue. Perhaps he’s trying to make it a political issue since the case he and his minions filed before the court to nullify the sale of the SRP lots to Filinvest, SM and Ayala was dismissed,” Garganera told SunStar Cebu.
Morelos said that among the interested buyers of the three-hectare lot is Federal Land Inc., which earlier expressed intention by submitting an unsolicited proposal to buy and develop the property to Osmeña.
Federal Land president Pascual Garcia, in a letter to Osmeña, offered to buy the 29,881-square-meter Lot 1-F8 for P115,000 per square meter, for a total purchase price of P3.4 billion.
Federal Land wants to purchase the lot and develop it into a residential and commercial hub.
However, instead of an unsolicited proposal, the City has decided to dispose of the property through a public bidding.
In 2017, the City Council had authorized Osmeña to dispose of three hectares of land in the SRP through a public bidding at P110,000 per square meter, for a total value of P3.3 billion.
Labella said Osmeña often bragged that the lot in SRP could be sold at P110,000 per square meter, but failed to fulfill and sell the three-hectare lot for this price to Federal Land Inc., which expressed interest to buy it. (RVC)