Gealon named SRP board chairman

CEBU, Philippines — Acting Cebu City Mayor Raymond Garcia has appointed Councilor Rey Gealon as chairman of the board of the South Road Properties (SRP).

Gealon’s appointment was announced by Garcia during the groundbreaking of a new building at Sanremo Oasis, a residential cluster of medium-rise buildings within City di Mare, the city’s joint venture with Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) at the SRP over the weekend. Garcia sees Gealon fit for the role as SRP board chairman.

Garcia said he had known Gealon since high school as the latter was his schoolmate at Don Bosco Technical High School. Garcia was batch 1994 while Gealon belongs to batch 1997. Aside from graduating the same school, they are also both lawyers.

Gealon, who is also a Doctor of Philosophy, served as city legal officer and chairman of the Citom Board before he was elected councilor. He had also served as councilor of Argao, his hometown.

“I would like to introduce you to our brand new chairman of the board, the South Road Properties management board, Attorney Rey Gealon,” said Garcia.

With Gealon at the helm, Garcia instructed the SRP Board to “be more active, and not anymore passive.”

“Be more active in the development of our SRP, at the same time to be more proactive as well in attending to the needs of our joint venture partners,” Garcia added.

As SRP chair, other than Garcia’s instruction to attend to the needs of venture partners at SRP, including NuStar Resort and Casino that now stands at the former Kawit Island, Gealon is also expected to oversee and support emerging SRP projects.

These include the South Coast City, the joint venture of SM Prime and Ayala Land, and the joint venture of Filinvest with SBC Corporation, and the contracted but still not started reclamation of Pond A with Expedition Construction Corp while also dealing with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)’s committed projects for SRP.

Meanwhile, Garcia vowed to “fully support” the city’s venture partners and locators at SRP as he looks into the city as becoming a premiere city in Asia. Garcia said, if investors succeed, the whole city of Cebu also succeeds.

“It is imperative and important that we always give our lending hand to all our joint venture partners, especially Filinvest,” Garcia said.

Earlier, Garcia also gave the same assurance to new locators at CDM at the SRP including the likes of Jollibee, Chowking, Bo’s Coffee, Caltex, Future Golf driving range and TGR Football Academy of coach Glenn Ramos. — (FREEMAN)