THE Cebu City Council already had made its moves and expressed its opinion about the 2015 sale of lots at the South Road Properties (SRP) to a business consortium for P16.76 billion.
* On May 21, it passed two resolutions: one, recognizing the validity of a compromise between Mayor Tomas Osmeña and taxpayer Romulo Torres over the proceeds of the said lots (Torres wanted to stop the spending of P8.35 billion downpayment); and two, declaring that the sale to the business group was void.
* On May 28, it passed a resolution “informing” the Cebu public that the same sale was void because of its numerous alleged defects.
* Last Tuesday, June 4, it passed a resolution declaring again the lots sale void and asking the city attorney’s office to file a petition in court to seek the declaration of the contract as void.
‘Repetitive act’
Barug Councilor Joy Pesquera objected to the “repetitive acts” of the City Council, particularly because, she said, the Court of Appeals upheld last May 22 an earlier Regional Trial Court ruling that threw out the complaint against validity of the sale and spending of its proceeds. The acts are BOPK’s, although, once approved, they become official decision of the City Council.
It is only the BOPK faction that has kept pushing the issue. Barug has resisted all the time. BOPK thinks the sale reeked with deceit and fraud because it was then mayor Mike Rama of Barug who sealed the deal. Barug thinks it is valid and likes to spend the money for city projects.
The results of the May 13 election--in which Tomas Osmeña and Mary Ann de los Santos lost in their bid for the top two executive seats to Barug’s Edgar Labella and Mike Rama–prompted the serial moves. And BOPK has handily executed them because it controls the City Council, a dominance it will keep even in the next legislature.
Last-ditch but legitimate
Because Tomas Osmeña has only until noon of June 30 to hold office, with a new mayor and vice mayor raring to defreeze the proceeds of the lots sale, the series of legislative thrusts may be seen as “last-ditch” or “midnight”--and “desperate.”
But they’re legitimate, within authority of the City Council to do and the mayor to enforce. Strange and suspicious but valid.
The City Council and the mayor can declare to Cebuanos and the world that the lots sale was illegal and fraudulent. But that amounts to a mere opinion. Since the contract was perfected (crafted and probed by lawyers on both sides) and the downpayment made by the buyers and accepted by the seller, it cannot be annulled, rescinded or declared void by one party alone. The buyers’ rights must be examined too.
Court power recognized
Even if the legislature votes unanimously to strike the contract down, it still has to go to court. The June 4 resolution recognizes that as the measure merely “requests” the city attorney to go to court.
Romulo Torres of Barangay. Basak-San Nicolas, did go to court but the CA ruled that his complaint was not “justiciable.” Even as taxpayer, he didn’t have the kind of interest the court would look into and protect. Thus, the allegations of Mayor Osmeña, which he diligently enumerated before the public, were never examined by the court.
The City itself should’ve filed the lawsuit, a threat that the mayor did not pursue or had given up since he returned to City Hall in 2016.
Which was more devastating: losing an election or losing the SRP, a City Hall watcher asked. Whatever, both the SRP and the election will still be there in 2022, we hope.