Capitol to ‘move forward’ (South Road Properties)

Saturday, January 24, 2009

CEBU Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia decided to “move forward” and focus on “worthier undertakings” such as further spurring economic activities in the province, her spokesperson said yesterday.

Capitol information and revenue generation consultant Rory Jon Sepulveda said they do not want to be accused of delaying developments at the South Road Properties (SRP), whose loan interest costs Cebu City taxpayers about P1 million every day.

Governor Garcia is scheduled to preside over a two-day seminar with Capitol department heads and consultants starting today in Sogod town, just a day after the Provincial Government ended its tourism caravan “Suroy Suroy Sugbo: Southern Heritage Trail.”



Sepulveda said it’s important that the Provincial Government did not pay the P125-million nonrefundable appeal fee the City Government demanded for the position paper the Capitol filed with the mayor’s office.

Even if the City Government rejected their bid, the Capitol consultant said the Provincial Government believes its officials “did everything insofar as the administrative process is concerned.”

“We fought it out. We fought a clean and an honest battle,” said Sepulveda, saying it would be the City’s call whether to award the contract to the Filinvest.

“If they will award it (contract), I will not be surprised. We knew they would award it,” he said. (GMD)