I AGREE with Rep. Evangeline Abejo of the Alliance of National Urban Poor Assembly (Anupa), Inc. Party-list that the Province of Cebu should not make business out of the disposal of the 93-1 lots to its present occupants.
Although Abejo did clarify or specify, but she said in a press conference that the counter proposal of the Province of Cebu asking for 3.3 hectares from the South Road Properties (SRP) is “unconstitutional” in relation to the offer of Cebu City to pay P500 million for the 93-1 lots.
The province is asking for 3.3 hectares of land in the SRP, which could fetch a price of P1.3 billion, aside from the P500-million that the city offered. According to Capitol, the fair and just compensation of the 93-1 lots is P1.3 billion.
Abejo said that per records of the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor as of 2013, the balance for the payment by the informal settlers of Capitol lots is only P232 million. The P500 million, therefore, that the city offered to pay is more than enough, added Abejo.
Capitol and Cebu City officials have endeavored to come up with a win-win situation. But it looks like there are unseen hands who do not want the settlement perhaps because of the forthcoming May 2016 elections.
Whoever is undermining efforts to complete the purchase of the provincial lots in the city that have long been occupied by the informal settlers somehow ignores the possible backlash. Any delay or the eventual deadlock of the purchase of 93-1 lots will benefit Mayor Mike Rama and his team and their political opponents.
Although former mayor Tomas Osmeña denied in his previous media interviews that he had a hand in the 93-1 lots issue, but many suspect that he could have influenced Gov. Junjun Davide, a former city councilor and BOPK member.
The 93-1 lots issue, while not directly related to the petition for injunction filed against Mayor Rama and Vice Mayor Edgar Labella seeking to prevent the city from spending the P8.35-billion down payment of the sale of 45.2 hectares of land in South Road Properties (SRP) to the consortium of Ayala Land and SM Properties and Filinvest, but it boils down to one thing: politics.
Some allegations in the civil suit that Romulo Torres, who I suppose is a lawyer and carry the nickname “Moloy,” filed were parroted from the utterances of the BOPK councilors and Tomas after the sale of the 45.2 hectares of SRP lots.
Example: “The sale violated the spirit of the ordinance laying the rules for the disposal of the property done through bidding and not through unsolicited proposal.”
If this Moloy is a lawyer and a former assistant city prosecutor, I am surprised that he hired a lady lawyer to prepare and file his petition in court. The purpose is obvious in Moloy’s prayer for an injunction so that the city cannot spend the proceeds of the sale.
But did not Moloy reckon that if the city can’t spend the proceeds of the sale of the SRP lots for the services that city residents need, he would also be deprived of the city’s services like cleaning the streets and collection of garbage?
Perhaps, Moloy doesn’t care because the intention of the petition is not to benefit him, his relatives and his neighbors but his patron, the BOPK. I was even taken aback when I read Bobby Nalzaro’s column that there is no Moloy in the address he gave in the petition.
This is not to preempt the ruling of the court on the petition for injunction, but I don’t think the court would grant it since the injunction could mean the suspension of the operations of the city government. I understand that part of the proceeds had been spent. It’s a legal precept that a done act cannot anymore be restrained.
To sum it up, the demand of Capitol for the city to give some SRP lots in exchange of the 93-1 lots aside from the P500 million and the pending petition in court for Cebu city not to touch the proceeds of the sale of the SRP lots is related to the May 2016 elections no matter how they deny it.
In other words and to say it briefly, too much politics impairs public service and economic growth. And, at the end of the day we are the victims.
(freezone.ellie588@gmail.com)