Filinvest still to pursue P80 B South Road Properties investment

The Freeman
December 16, 2008 12:00 AM

Cebu City mayor on-leave Tomas Osmeña said the Filinvest Land Inc. will still pursue its P80 billion investment at the South Road Properties despite the opinion of Asian Development Bank (ADB) consultants that the SRP lacks a land use master plan.

“Don’t listen to them. They don’t know what they are talking about. Filinvest will start project without them,” Osmeña said yesterday.

The mayor, who is still in the United States, said he knows what is acceptable and what is not.

The ADB consultants have suggested that the SRP’s land use master plan should be completed first before the lots will be sold.

They explained that infrastructure utilities such as roads, drainage systems, electricity and water lines should be identified first because it would be difficult to put them up once the lots are already sold.

But Osmeña argued that “If we followed a so-called master land use plan, the SM City mall would never be there. Why? Because it was never in the master plan as a matter of fact, to accommodate SM, we had to destroy six hectares of city roads, side walks, streetlights, drainage and electrical lines.”

He said the hiring of those ADB consultants are just a waste of time, saying “let them show their past accomplishments if any.”

The FLI had proposed for a joint venture with the city to develop a 50-hectare lot at the SRP.The firm will pay the city P1.5 billion for 10 hectares of the lot while the city will receive 10 percent of the gross income from the rest of the lot.

In his argument, Osmeña asked that “was the Cebu International Convention Center originally part of the master plan of the Mandaue reclamation project? No way.”

He even suggested that ADB should hire experts from Osaka Power or Tokyo Power regarding the district cooling, or Singapore Power for electrical distributor.

Osmeña said the city will not put on hold projects at the SRP just to wait for the completion of the study conducted by the ADB consultants.

He said the ADB has not extended a single development loan to the Philippines for the past several years even though it is based in the country. “That’s a reflection of their competence.” — Rene U. Borromeo/LPM(THE FREEMAN)