EDITORIAL - Tomorrow's bakery is today's bread

Mayor Michael Rama is planning to sell more pieces of real estate at the city-owned South Road Properties but is meeting stiff opposition from Rep. Tomas Osmeña and his supporters at the city council.

When Osmeña was still mayor, he managed to sell off two huge chunks of the property to SM Prime Holdings and Filinvest Land worth several billions of pesos without encountering a whimper from the council.

According to Rama, selling off more land, perhaps to smaller investors, will spur faster development of the area and thus generate jobs for Cebuanos than if the city waits for the giant developers to realize their mega projects, which can take some time.

Osmeña countered that waiting for the giant developers who have already acquired huge chunks of property at the SRP to realize their mega projects will jack up real estate values in the area, thus potentially fetching more money for the city.

Judging by their arguments, it would appear that Rama has the more practical approach to the issue. Why wait for a tomorrow that can be overtaken by today’s events? The Asian financial crisis of the 1990s crippled many economies because nobody gave provisions for unforeseen events.

It is titillating to consider the mega projects being lined up at the SRP. But until they are actually there, they are still not there. All we have are the plans of the owners. But until the owners actually decide to realize their plans, they will remain plans.

One must understand that Osmeña is talking of the real giants in the industry, and as such are not only limited to one plan in Cebu. These giants have multiple giant projects in the pipeline. How they decide to manage their own timetables is entirely up to them.

Meanwhile, the available lands at the SRP remain idle because Osmeña wants to wait. But is he really waiting for the giant projects to be realized or he is not actually waiting for his chance to get back in City Hall.

If Osmeña gets back in the saddle, Cebuanos better believe any opportune time is simply a matter of his own dictation. Besides, what does Osmeña care about higher prices? When he sold off some property and the city got the downpayments, what tangible benefit did anyone get out of it?