Cebu City rejects lawmaker’s suggestion on SRP patent bid

CEBU — The Cebu City government has rejected the suggestion of Cebu first district Rep. Eduardo Gullas that it applies for special patent only on the uncontested portion of the south reclamation project (SRP).

"It has taken us over two years since 2002 to process the whole thing in order to get the presidential proclamation. And if we are going to succumb to (his) suggestion, we are going to go back right where we started two years ago. That is not acceptable to us. We are not the one who initiated the fight," said Paul Nigel Villarete, SRP manager and city planning and development officer.

Should the city government agree to the suggestion, Villarete said it would lead to the changing of every document or clearance that the city government had secured to support its application for a certificate of land title for the SRP’s entire 295-hectare area.

Earlier, Gullas said Talisay City was not holding hostage the SRP development because Cebu City could apply for the special patent of the project’s uncontested portion with the assurance that Talisay City would never get in the way of Cebu City’s moves.

Talisay City is claiming 53.44 hectares of the 295-hectare SRP.

Gullas said the disputed portion of the SRP is something best left to the courts to decide. This way, he said it would then be proven if Cebu City could, indeed, market the SRP to become self-liquidating in order to pay for its ballooning loan obligations.

Gullas said Cebu City should not blame Talisay City for its having to pay over a million pesos in interest a day since Talisay City was not even consulted when the loan agreement was finally signed.

"That’s a big lie. Why don’t they ask Mayor Soc Fernandez about it? Talisay was always part of the Metro Cebu Development Project (MCDP) and Soc sat as a member when the Talisay portion of the project was presented, which is Pond C," Villarete said. — Freeman News Service