Capitol willing to work with city on South Road Properties

CEBU - Taking advantage of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s absence, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia yesterday visited the South Road Properties and expressed interest in working together with the city on the project that she intends to put up at the much-talked about facility.

For the first time since the province expressed interest in investing at the SRP, the governor stepped on the 295-hectare property where she was warmly welcomed and briefed by SRP management office head Nagiel Bañacia.

Before the governor left the Sugbu building, where Bañacia brought her to have an aerial view of the entire facility, the governor told him that the province is willing to work with the city.

“We should be working together, instead of fighting against each other,” Garcia said.

The governor conducted a preliminary inspection of the SRP because the Capitol is interested and wanted to challenge the proposal of Filinvest Land Inc., which intends to make a P2 billion outright purchase of the lots at the SRP.

The province is preparing to challenge the proposal of FLI to buy a 10-hectare portion of the property and to develop another 40 hectares under a joint venture with the city government.

The lot that the company wanted to develop is situated in SRP’s prime lot portion which is valued at P15,000 per square meter.

“We are serious in our bid and we did not do this to amuse anybody,” Garcia said after her short visit at the SRP.

She also instructed her appraisal team to coordinate with the city government in order to get the technical and assessment date of the lots.

The appraisal team of the province composed of provincial treasurer Roy Salubre, provincial engineer Eulogio Pelayre and provincial assessor Anthony Sususco.

Garcia said that the possibilities in doing development in the site are tremendous because of the complete utilities and facilities such as water and electricity.

The province doubts the proposal of Filinvest because under the National Economic Development Authority guidelines, a joint venture does not include outright purchase.

Capitol consultant on information and revenue generation Rory Jon Sepulveda cited the NEDA guidelines that said “a joint venture is a contractual arrangement whereby a private sector entity or a group of private sector entity or one man and government entity or group of government entity contribute money, capital permitive asset.” — Garry B. Lao and Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/WAB (THE FREEMAN)