THE current administrators of Capitol and the City of Cebu have mutually agreed to terminate the memorandum of agreement (MOA) that was signed between then Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña and former governor now Vice Gov. Hilario Davide III, which swapped the Province-owned lots already occupied by the city’s informal settlers with lots in SRP (South Road Properties).
The MOA was signed sometime in December 2016 between Osmeña and Davide and then on Aug. 3, 2018, the two officials signed the Deed of Donation and Acceptance over these lots. In the MOA, the Province will give Cebu Cty a total of 32 hectares of lots located in the city’s barangays, which are mostly occupied by the city’s informal settlers.
There is no truth to the rumors, though, that Gov. Gwen Garcia doesn’t like to see the documents on the land swap deal signed by her political nemeses, then mayor Tomas and Vice Gov. Davide, and that she wanted her name on these documents.
What the lady governor wants, though, according to news reports, is that other properties that are included in the land swap deal but not occupied by the city’s informal settlers should not be included in the exchange of lots. Garcia wants the city to focus only on the 93-1 lots, on which the informal settlers have built their homes.
Included in that MOA is the 1.5 hectare lot in the Department of Agriculture compound on M. Velez St., Banawa where the offices of the Ombudsman Visayas, Register of Deeds, and the Department of Justice are located. The Province is giving 32 hectares, and in return Cebu City only gave 2.5 hectares in SRP, a 3.3-hectare block behind SM City, the 2.5-hectare botanical garden at SM Seaside and nine hectares in Pulpogan, Consolacion.
Perhaps, the governor finds the deal disadvantageous to the Province that she wanted the ownership of these donated lots returned to the Province as well as those that Cebu City owns. Garcia wants to limit the deal on 93-1 lots. But I have some reservations, though, on the cancellation of the MOA because a deed of donation was already executed between the City of Cebu and the Province over these lots.
Any deed, like a donation, can be revoked by the donor, but since this donation was between the two local government units, I believe that it cannot just be revoked by mere agreement of the two top officials of Cebu City and Capitol. The revocation, if I may add, would need the confirmation of the Cebu City Council and the Provincial Board.
On the part of Capitol, I don’t think the governor will have a problem getting the affirmation of the Provincial Board where she has the majority even if the presiding officer, Davide III, is not her partymate. But in the Cebu City Council, the move to revoke the donation might meet some objections from the city councilors, who belong to Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), Osmeña’s party. The big question, perhaps, that one of the vocal BOPK councilors would ask during the deliberation in the City Council on the move to cancel the MOA and revoke the deed of donation is, why disturb the MOA and the donation when it worked well for everyone, especially for the settlers on 93-1 lots? Could it be because of politics? Your guess is as good as mine!