The sale of NRA, a mayor's leverage

Few years ago, the Cebu City government under the then Honorable Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña, sold a valuable piece of real property located at the north reclamation area to a large corporation. As if nobody knew it, that property was called the “city hall block”. And the consideration was some few hundred million pesos. Whether it was necessary and important to sell that land was a decision that we left to the sole determination of the city mayor. We did not even ask him, in any manner, to find out if we approved of the transaction or not.

 Truth to tell, how I wished a public hearing of some kind were conducted to feel the pulse of the city residents. In such a scenario, we could have really asked why was the property called “city hall block” in the first place. It was important for us to know if there was no legal impediment to the exercise by the city of its ordinary proprietary rights of dominion over the land. Differently stated, such a forum could have satisfied the anxiety of few individuals, not excluding me, in the appropriateness of the sale.

 To be sure, that property materialized from the reclamation of what was once a foreshore land in the early 60’s, when I was still in my early high school years. If my information were correct, the parties in the effort were then Cebu City Mayor Sergio Osmeña, Jr., Cebu Development Corporation whose corporate head was also Mayor Sergio Osmeña, Jr. and a contractor (was it Edsel Construction) also reportedly another enterprise of then Mayor Sergio Osmeña Jr. (how I wish such learned gentlemen in our city, like the former Mayor Mario D. Ortiz, could comment on this information, if only for us to understand better the history of the reclamation).

 In any case, among the alleged specific intentions of the undertaking was to find a place for the relocation of the city hall. Then Mayor Serging, accordingly visualized the need to move the city hall to a place that would showcase the city’s prominence. The city’s authority to do the reclamation was granted upon the private partners, CDC and Edsel, for the share of whatever land that would be reclaimed. That share was supposed to be the site of a new city hall.

 There should be documents to evidence that deal among the city, the CDC and Edsel. The legal eagles in our midst (and they are not few in number) need to revisit these instruments which must be preserved in the city’s vaults or in the files of the lawyers who notarized them. And believe me, these papers would validate my hunch on why the realized parcel of land, the one that the city sold just few years ago, yes, the one that was assigned to the city, was called the “city hall block” In other words, that particular property has been identified as one for the specific public use at the future site of the city hall.

 If the intention of the reclamation was to find a parcel of land to become the new site of the city hall and for which reason it was called the “city hall block”, that lot has assumed the quality of being one of public domain and, as the lawyers would say it, “beyond the commerce of man”. Thus, it could not be sold like the way it happened.

 It is important for us to know the nitty-gritty of the city’s sale of the “city hall block”, in the light of the opposition by the honorable Rep. Tomas Osmeña to the reported effort of His Honor Cebu City Michael Rama to sell some parts of the South Road Properties. If these lots are of the same character of public domain, the new mayor has a lot of legal maneuverings to do. Of course, he also can use this information to serve as his leverage for “whatever”.

 But, even if the SRP lots are not anywhere near “public domain”, the plan of Mayor Rama, though legally easier, is still very difficult to achieve. The recent pronouncements of the leading names in the city council indicate the reluctance, to say the least, of the city council to authorize the mayor in that regard.

 There, you have it mayor.

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