South Road Properties joint deal being drafted--mayor

By Marian Z. Codilla
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 11:42:00 11/07/2008

THE Cebu City government and Filinvest Land Inc. are still drafting their joint venture agreement to develop a portion of the South Road Properties (SRP).

SRP negotiation updates and the city's commitment to help the poor constituents will be taken up by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña during his City Address (Soca) on Saturday.

The venue was moved to the Cebu Coliseum from the Cebu City Sports Center since it might rain tomorrow.

Osmeña reported for work at City Hall yesterday, a day after he quietly arrived from a four-week trip to the United States.

He was greeted first by reporters at the lobby and was welcomed by Cebu City administrator Francisco Fernandez and some barangay officials, and city officials.

Osmeña yesterday defended the SRP negotiations from criticisms by Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia's allies.

“We are very strict in following a protocol. We are adopting national guidelines for government owned and controlled corporation on how to do a joint venture. We are following the exact protocol. The issue brought up by the province is the issue on transparency. We have been transparent when we say we are drafting an agreement with FLI,” he said.

Osmeña said lawyers of FLI are drafting the agreement and the city government officials expect to have it in a few days.

FLI is proposing to develop a 50-hectare property in the SRP where 40 hectares will be on a JV while the other 10-hectare will be an outright sale worth P2 billion.

“We are not following the rules of Tommy Osmeña but we are strictly following that National Economic Development Authority (Neda) guidelines,” Osmeña said.

On the initial proposal of FLI, the city will be collecting 10 percent of the sale or lease of whatever the FLI will be developing such as condominiums, and hotels.

The mayor just brushed off the reports of the Commission on Audit that the city tops the list of all the cities with the largest liabilities.

The liability was mainly due to the multi-billion loan acquired by the city for the SRP.

“Sure the province tops the list of provinces with most assets but it is because there assets are located within Cebu City,” he said.

“We are number one in the cities with debts....no problem with debts as long as we have assets. Naa tay utang...so are we poor?”

Osmeña said he is confident the city can pay the loan, which has reached $3 million due to interest rates, in the next three to four years.

Osmeña said he would answer the issues raised by the province during his Soca.

He said he would have wanted to hold his Soca at the sports complex to remind Cebuanos of his first accomplishment with then councilor Joy Augustus Young.

He reiterated that he would not resign even if he was battling cancer.

“Why will I resign? There is no reason at this point that I will be resigning,” he said.

He said Cebu City should not focus on his illness but see his cancer as an opportunity to be independent and not rely entirely on the mayor.

“The number one responsibility or duty of the father is to make their children not depend on you. You teach your children everything that you know so that one day they will not need you anymore or maybe they can even be better than you. The responsibility of the father is how to be useless in the future so that your children will not depend on you,” he said. /With Correspondent Jully Venus Cuizon