Rama wants to move City Hall to SRP

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is eyeing at relocating the City Hall to the South Road Properties and possibly converting the current building into a museum.

“I want to have a complex for government offices and functions at the SRP in the future,” he said.

With a lack of “modern” museums in the city, Rama said the current City Hall building will be an ideal venue, what with its proximity to historical landmarks downtown like the Magellan’s Cross, Plaza Independencia, Fort San Pedro, Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, and Cathedral Museum of Cebu, among others.

Compared to other urban cities, Rama said Cebu City lacks a botanical museum, culture and arts museum, children’s museum, and the like.

Transferring the City Hall to the SRP and having a contemporary museum in the area has “been my dream, long time ago,” Rama said.

Rama has already directed SRP Management Office head Roberto Varquez to tap architectural institutions in the city to plan and design a possible complex.

Varquez said that if the plan materializes, the new City Hall building would possibly occupy the 2.5-hectare property across the Bigfoot Global Solution building at SRP.

The seven-hectare property near the city’s old motor pool area is also available for a complex that can house offices of government agencies, including the Hall of Justice.

For now, the “ideal” offices are being identified.

“This project is very possible. There is a huge chance for the realization of this project since there was an authority given by the Council to dispose of some properties at SRP,” Varquez said.

The City Council recently authorized Rama “to negotiate and dispose by sale through public bidding” to interested investors and developers the 45.2 hectares of land at SRP.

These properties include Lot No. 8 (located near the Calungsod templete) with a total land area of 26 hectares; and consolidated lots No. 7 and No. 17 (located beside SM Seaside) consisting of 19.2 hectares.

Based on a conservative projected revenue computed at P20,000 per square meter, the sale of Lot No. 8 is pegged at P5.3 billion and P3.8 billion for the consolidated lots.

But only 50 percent down payment can be consumed upon the awarding of the contract, while the remaining 50 percent will be settled within a maximum period of three years.

However, these parcels of land are part of this year’s annual budget sources to fund the city’s basic services like financial assistance to seniors, persons with disabilities, among others.

Varquez pointed out, however, that the city has the “option to shift priorities.”

“We can shift our priorities. The city has allocation for infrastructure projects and City Hall Complex is an infra project. With the amount to be generated from SRP the project is possible until the mayor’s last term if he wins in God’s willing,” he said.

With a total area of 300 hectares, the SRP is the biggest asset of the Cebu City government. Of the 300 hectares, 90 hectares are already sold to SM Prime Holdings Inc., Bigfoot Entertainment, and Filinvest Land Incorporated, while five hectares was donated for a University of the Philippines-SRP campus. — /JMO (FREEMAN)