City Officials Thinking Of Filing: Sabotage charges eyed vs. Province

CEBU, Philippines - Acting Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he and the other city officials are already entertaining the thought of filing a case of “economic sabotage” against Capitol officials.

Rama has echoed the idea broached by Mayor on leave Tomas Osmeña in his recent return to Cebu last month.

“Kun naa silay history, Cebu City is the engine of economy, take away the heart and that means death,” Rama said.

Cebu 3rd District Representative Pablo John Garcia called for a Congressional Inquiry raising defects in the Joint Venture Contract entered into by the Cebu City Government and Filinvest Land Incorporated (FLI) for 50.6 hectares of the South Road Properties (SRP).

He said it is not sending good signals to the public and to the world about Cebu.

“Ari mo sa Cebu, naa dire ang lamppost. Unsa may inyong punto, what are you trying to accomplish, kun nay problema dire, nganu ngadto man magyagyag didto, kinsa may apektado, ang gipakauwawan, kitang tanan, dili lang ang Cebu City,” Rama said.

Rama who is a lawyer said the unconstitutionality issue raised by the Garcias would mean that all the rest who were involved issued a defective Proclamation.

“President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who signed the Presidential Proclamation allowing the sale, the Department of Justice, the Commission on Audit, all of them also defied the Constitution if that’s the case. What gave us more courage to sell it was the Proclamation,” Rama said.

He is daring the Province to file a case in court ,which he and his fellow lawyers at City Hall are ready to face.

“If this will bring us to court let them file a case, I am willing to be put behind bars,” Rama said.

When the Province was selling its land then to Ayala and to Robinson’s, Rama said the City of Cebu did not block and even helped it happen.

For his part, Cebu City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said, economic sabotage case for now is still considered as a mere thought.

“Sure it may be discussed but for now there is yet no ground, no harm has been done, I can still sleep well and I’m sure the rest of the officials are still able to sleep well, and also with Filinvest,” Fernandez said.

He said it is the right of the Congress to investigate and again they will be more than willing to answer the grounds.

“We will wait for a copy of Garcia’s speech and will also look into his own model of a Joint Venture he cited in his speech,” Fernandez said.

Fernadez headed the Joint Venture Selection Committee which dealt with the proposal of FLI for an office and housing project at the SRP.

The Cebu Province was the lone entity that expressed interest to submit a competitive challenge to FLI’s proposal.

They were declared ineligible for lack of legality, expertise and financial capacity.

JVSC set one very important requirement, which was allowing only private entities to submit a challenge.

Stick To Your Problems

Rama said in the 888 Forum yesterday that officials of the province must stick to the issues affecting their turf and not that of the city.

“Ang probinsya ni-sud na sa syudad,” added Rama who said that the people of the city elected the city officials to lead Cebu and did not elect officials in the province.

Rama explained that this started when the city lost its right to vote for a governor because of a provision in the New Constitution exempting all highly urbanized cities from voting for a governor.

“Ang SRP land, naa sa siyudad. Being ‘naa sa syudad’, amu nang responsibility, dili sa probinsiya,” he stressed

He also said that the intrusion of the provincial government in the SRP project is like an “economic sabotage” because to him, what supposed to be is a development project of great benefit to the poor was put on hold because of the intervention. – With Quennie Rose P. Olano, UP Cebu Intern/NLQ   (THE FREEMAN)