'Economic sabotage': Tom warns those suing to stop SRP

CEBU - Before leaving for the United States to seek treatment, Cebu City Mayor Tomas issued a strong warning to those who will continue to challenge the development of the South Road Properties in court that he would not tolerate such acts that would jeopardize the multi-billion project of Filinvest land Inc.

“I’d like to give a strong warning to those who hate me so much and they are willing to sabotage the SRP just to put us down. This time we will fight in court and we will fight back using every tool that we have and we want the Cebuanos to support us because these (filing of cases vs. the SRP) are really a form of economic sabotage against the future of Cebu,” the mayor told the media at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Osmeña left for New York yesterday together with her wife, Margot.

He said that this should be a strong and clear warning to those who filed cases against the city. 

Cases have been filed in the past yen years by former Senator John “Sonny” Osmeña, a cousin of the mayor, and former Tinago barangay captain Joel Garganera.

“We have been tolerant before but now we will fight back,” the mayor said.

Garganera, a staunch critic of the mayor, in a separate interview said that although such warning is no longer new to him, he assured the mayor that he will not make any legal move to hamper the negotiations of the Filinvest proposal.

“I will not make any move to hamper the on-going negotiation especially now that the mayor is sick. But let us not be overjoyed by this. A proposal is still a proposal. It is not yet a sale,” Garganera said.

Garganera reiterated his challenge to the mayor that he will resign as a barangay councilman of Tinago if the city government will be able to consummate a sale of property at the SRP within the year.

In the same way, Garganera challenged to mayor to resign if there would be no sale within the year.

But the mayor earlier refused to take such challenge but instead said, “Joel doesn’t matter. If you don’t mind him, he doesn’t matter”.

Garganera had asked the Regional Trial Court last year to bar the mayor, the Cebu Investment Promotions Center, the Register of Deeds and the City Council from leasing, selling, disposing and marketing the SRP.

In retaliation, the city government had filed a P20 million damage suit against Garganera, which according to the mayor would serve as a warning against people who will file unwarranted and baseless suits.

Garganera added that the case is now pending before the Court of Appeals after the injunction he filed against the city government was not appreciated in the lower court.

He had alleged that any moves such as selling or leasing any portion of the SRP lot are illegal since the presidential proclamation transferring ownership of the said property to the city government needs congressional approval.

Garganera maintained that the SRP is a land of public domain, thus it belongs to the State and disposing it does not need only presidential proclamation but congressional nod.

Meanwhile, the mayor formed a joint venture selection committee headed by City administrator Francisco Fernandez to handle the multi-billion proposal of Filinvest.

The committee is tasked to evaluate the business proposal of Filinvest and makes a recommendation for approval of the mayor and the City Council.

Filinvest is one of the largest real estate companies in the Philippines. It is a publicly listed, full-range residential developer and is offering for an outright purchase of ten hectares worth P2 billion.

Aside from this, Filinvest also offers a joint venture with the city government to develop 50 hectares of 300-hectare SRP.

For his part, Joel Mari Yu, managing director of CIPC, said that they will surely file cases against those who will file nuisance cases just to sabotage the Filinvest transaction and future transctions in relation to SRP development.

“If we are sued to stop this transaction and if the court finds out that it is just a nuisance case, we will not hesitate to file counter charges by charging them for economic sabotage,” Yu said.

CIPC is marketing the SRP, dubbed by Osmeña as his pet project.

It maybe recalled that Sonny Osmeña, the mayor’s cousin and political enemy, said that it may not be possible to sell portions of the SRP as the decision of the Supreme Court had barred selling of reclaimed land.

The city government is paying P700 million this year as payment of its SRP loan. The city will be paying such amount until the next four years and its payment will be reduced to P250 million in the next 15 years.

So far, the only income of SRP is P25 million which represents the lease payment of Bigfoot for 25 years. — /NLQ (THE FREEMAN)