AT the heart of Cebu City is an important landmark for the Queen City of the South which is now once again embroiled in an ownership controversy. The Fuente Osmeña Circle, created in 1912 as a tribute to Cebu’s Grand Old Man, Don Sergio Osmeña Sr., is marked with a quaint fountain at the center.
Today, the park remains the center of an unresolved dispute on whether the park is owned by the province of Cebu or its capital, Cebu City.
“It’s very clear. All public parks belong to the city. It is a decree during the time of the Americans,” said Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday when sought for comment on a motion for reconsideration filed by the Cebu provincial government before the Court of Appeals (CA) against a Regional Trial Court (RTC) decision which upheld the city’s ownership over the property.
Last month, RTC Judge Generosa Labra upheld the Cebu City government’s ownership of Fuente Osmeña Circle in its decision on the civil case filed by the provincial government in 2007 during the term of then governor Gwendolyn Garcia, for Quieting of Title and Recovery of Possession.
“For ninety-five years, the plaintiff Province of Cebu never lifted a finger to question the management and administration by the City over the subject park, and for 95 years, the administration by the City of Cebu over the subject property has made the same as one of the most recognizable landmarks in the City,” the court said in its decision.
Gwendolyn’s father, former Cebu governor and congressman Pablo Garcia, called on the provincial government to file a motion for reconsideration on the ruling in a letter he wrote to Provincial Legal Officer Orvi Ortega following reports that Gov. Hilario Davide III was no longer keen on filing a motion for reconsideration. As for the mayor, although Garcia has a voice on the matter, “He is a nonentity as far as I am concerned.”
“ Pabling Garcia does not mean anything to me,” Osmeña added./USJ-R Intern Dafne Wenceslao