South Road Properties: A gamble that paid off handsomely

SHOOTING STRAIGHT By Valeriano Avila
Monday, September 29, 2008

By now, everyone in Cebu already knows that Filinvest Land Incorporated (FLI) has virtually closed a humongous P80 billion deal with the City of Cebu to acquire around P50 hectares of land at the controversial South Reclamation Properties (SRP). I say controversial because it just had too many critics and oppositionists who believed that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña was wrong in committing the City of Cebu into undergoing such a gargantuan project. I can only say that most of the critics of hizzoner couldn’t think past their small minds.

Just a few weeks ago, Barangay Tinago Councilman Joel Garganera dared Mayor Osmeña to resign if the City would not sell a portion of the SRP and consequently, he too would resign if the Mayor sold something in the SRP. Well, I’m willing to bet that Mr. Joel Garganera would never resign because he can always find excuses like, this challenge was never perfected nor agreed by both parties. But if he is truly a gentleman, he would resign because his challenge was made in public! But then, who cares if he quits or not? Small minds truly cannot fathom bigger minds.

While this big news was heard by the Cebuanos only in last Friday’s headline, last Sept.16, we already made this announcement in this corner, though it was still considered “unofficial”. But that’s the job of columnists to find out anything that’s happening in our locality and report it before it becomes breaking news. So before you read another breaking news early next month, let me just say that there are two other hot deals coming to the SRP, which promises us that the growth and development of Cebu City would more or less be assured in the decades to come.

But that’s not all! The SRP totals around 300 or so hectares of reclaimed land and the FLI deal would only develop 50 hectares. When FLI’s development starts, you can bet your last centavo that the property value of the SRP would increase tremendously especially for the remainder of the property. When this deal is signed, sealed and delivered, Mayor Tomas Osmeña can retire from politics with a grin, that he was able to pull off one of Cebu’s greatest gambles called the SRP! Though we are all elated by this news, it is no time to gloat. There’s still a lot of land out there that need to be developed before we can rest on our laurels.