City, VECO sign MOA for power in South Road Properties

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government and the Visayan Electric Company yesterday signed a memorandum of agreement for electricity in the 300-hectare South Road Properties.

The signatories were Mayor Tomas Osmeña on behalf of the city while VECO was represented by its president Dennis Garcia, the signing was witnessed by key officials of both parties.

Osmeña said that VECO will supply electricity to the entire facility as well as fill in the demands of the locators.



The city will collect an access fee of 20 centavos for every kilowatt hour and charge a collection not higher than the usual rate outside SRP.

The mayor said that VECO was chosen as the power provider of the 300-hectare facility because it falls under its franchise area.

VECO holds a legislative franchise to construct, operate and maintain a distribution system for the conveyance of electric power to the end users in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Naga as well as the municipalities of Minglanilla, San Fernando, Consolacion and Liloan.

VECO will arrange for the design, engineering supply and construction of an electric power distribution system in the SRP.

The city will require each locator in the SRP to execute an agreement to purchase electricity from VECO at a rate to be authorized by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

For now the city cannot estimate the expected power demand in the SRP as more locators have yet to come in. So far, only Bigfoot Global Solutions Inc. and Filinvest Land Inc. are the locators.

Bigfoot started its project in the area in the middle of 2007 and has paid the P25 million for its 25-year lease payment for a two-hectare lot for its expansion studio.

Just recently, FLI and the city closed a P25-billion sale over a 50.6- hectare area for office and high-end residential spaces.

For water, a Joint Venture Selection Committee will already go over the proposal of Pilipinas Water Resource Inc. — Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP (THE FREEMAN)

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Tomas wants public to scrutinize South Road Properties

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants the public to further scrutinize developments at the South Road Properties (SRP).

A day before returning to the United States to undergo operation in his gall bladder the mayor said he welcomes the public, specially the city residents, to be aware of the SRP project and other developments in the city.

“I want the people of Cebu to scrutinize. Sure, because number one, we have nothing to hide and two, this is your project,” Osmeña emphasized.

According to him, he would welcome all questions and will answer them one by one because the residents deserve to know more about the SRP.



He added that he doesn’t mind repeating answers and explanations over the joint venture contract the city recently signed with Filinvest Land Inc. for a P25 billion project.

“To check for graft and corruption, it’s whether we got the right price for it or not,” he said.

Filinvest, according to him, was worried since they had never been insulted so much in their entire existence when their aim was merely to help the city.

In effect, Osmeña wanted also to reiterate that he welcomes any legal move that would be undertaken by the Cebu provincial government should it see any irregularity with the contract.

“Go ahead, file a case in court, not a congressional inquiry. Since when did the legislation become a court? So that is plain harassment,” he said in reference to the plan of Governor Gwendolyn Garcia’s younger brother, Cebu third district Rep. Pablo John Garcia, to seek a congressional inquiry into the joint venture of the city and Filinvest.

Osmeña said he remains positive that the transactions of other locators wanting to invest in the SRP will be smooth.

The mayor also said that he is sure that the ordinance pending at the City Council that seeks to prohibit the development of lots in the city that are owned by the Capitol will be passed.

“The City Council is not a rubber stamp of the mayor. If the vice mayor was a rubber stamp of the mayor, then we would all be happy at this time. We would have no problem, but since he had proven he is not, then 5,000 families could not sleep well at night,” Osmeña said.

He said the councilors are now well briefed on the situation and trusts them to make a good decision. — Ferliza C. Contratista/WAB (THE FREEMAN)

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