Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña delivers his 80th Charter Day message during an early morning program at Plaza Sugbu in front of Cebu City Hall.
Osmeña vows to succeed in his battle against the top three developers of the South Road Properties (SRP)
Amid controversies surrounding the city’s premier economic zone and a running feud with the President’s chief aide in the Visayas, it could not have been just an ordinary Charter Day celebration for Cebu City.
As battle-ready Mayor Tomas Osmeña walked up the podium to speak before a crowd of City Hall officials and employees, a fiery response to Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (PAV) Michael Dino’s challenge to Osmeña was much awaited.
Donning his trademark long-sleeved, light-colored polo shirt, the mayor did not disappoint.
Seemingly untroubled by Dino’s pronouncements and cool as a cucumber, the mayor triumphantly declared: “I am going to tell you simply: I will win.”
The mayor was alluding to the sale of 45.2 hectares of land at the South Road Properties (SRP) to Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) and a consortium of SM Prime Holdings Inc. and Ayala Land Inc. which he now wants to take back.
Twenty-six hectares were sold to the SM-Ayala consortium and 19.2 hectares to FLI at the time of former mayor Michael Rama, believed by Osmeña to have been grossly undervalued at P38,000 and P35,128 per square meter, respectively.
“I have embarked on a major challenge of recovering our properties in the South Reclamation Project (the former name of the South Road Properties). I have to fight three major giants, among the largest in the Philippines. And I’m not going to tell you I’m going to do my best. I am going to tell you simply: I will win,” said Osmeña.
“I will get it back for you because it is my dream that towards the end of my term, each and every one of our high school graduates from public schools will get P50,000 a semester so that they will be able to make a life for themselves,” he added.
Osmeña’s audience, gathered at the City Hall park, Plaza Sugbo, clapped.
But somewhere in Cebu, another clap from an unlikely source.
“No comment on that. Clap my hands lang,” said Dino, Osmeña’s nemesis and President Rodrigo Duterte’s Visayas assistant, in a text message to Cebu Daily News which came with a clapping emoji.
It was Dino who challenged Osmeña, on Thursday, to prove that there was an investor willing to pay P110,000 per square meter for a lot at the SRP after the mayor claimed that he could sell the SRP lots at that price.
Dino had told reporters that if Osmeña could show him the investor, the investor’s plans and investor’s money, he will quit his job as PAV, leave Cebu and stay in Davao.
Dino’s pronouncements strongly echoed in the chambers of the Cebu City Council as allies of Team Rama were quick to agree.
Osmeña ignores Dino challenge
In an interview with reporters after his Charter Day speech, Osmeña said that he was “not listening” to Dino.
“To me, Dino is just another cockroach. You’ll just have to learn how to deal with it. But he’s not going to dictate what I have to do for the city. I have my convictions. I have my plans,” Osmeña said.
If there is an investor that will show
interest, money should come out. If one investor will come out, mohawa ko. Not only mohawa ko sa position, ‘alis diyan’ sad ko sa Cebu.
Moadto ko’g Davao. — Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino
“You know, to me, there will always be people like Dino. He’s like a cockroach. No matter what you do there will always be another cockroach. If you’ll explode an atomic bomb here in Cebu, all of us might die, but the cockroaches will survive,” Osmeña explained further.
Dino had called Osmeña a “bully,” “anti-poor” and “anti-business” earlier this week, saying that several businesses were having second thoughts about investing in Cebu City because of Osmeña’s conflict with the city’s top developers at the SRP.
The presidential assistant also encouraged investors to instead consider other areas in the province like Mandaue City.
In his 80th Charter Day speech, Osmeña thanked his allies in the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) for “keeping the faith.”
“I cannot do this without your support. But I will tell you something: that at the end of the day, when we’ve all come and gone, we all must see to it that Cebu City must be better tomorrow than today,” he said in a crowd of political allies, city hall employees, foreign dignitaries and other guests.
Economic sabotage
An hour after the city’s Charter Day program ended, former mayor Michael Rama showed up at Plaza Sugbo with wreaths as he held his own floral offering before a brass monument of his grandfather Don Vicente Rama, also known as the “Father of the Cebu City Charter” (see separate story on page 4).
Sought by reporters, Rama described Osmeña’s pronouncements as “bullying, intimidation and economic sabotage.”
“Economic sabotage, bringing investors to be afraid, bringing businessmen to be afraid. We are not a city to be reigned by fear, to be intimidated. We are a city of respected people,” Rama said.
While FLI, on Monday, announced plans to rescind its contract with the city, Rama said that this will not be easy.
“That will have to be fought by. You cannot just rescind that easily. There will be more action. Perhaps, I wish that the council, predominated by us, will continue to have the character, dignity and conviction to stand because I have said congratulations (to Osmeña) for bullying,” he said.
Osmeña also questioned the validity of the Deeds of Sale of Installment signed by Rama with the SM-Ayala consortium and FLI as Osmeña noted the absence of a resolution from the previous city council authorizing Rama to sign the deeds.
“You mean to say Ayala and SM don’t have the lawyers that conducted due diligence? You mean to say Filinvest are irresponsible in entering a transaction? That’s why congratulations temporarily for his having accomplished in bullying. And that should never continue to be for as long as Team Rama is around, for as long as the spirit of Don Vicente Rama is alive, we will never allow that,” Rama said.