Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña may just as well meet with Metro Cebu’s businessmen if he hasn’t already in order to assure them that he is not anti-business in light of the fallout from Filinvest’s decision to rescind its contract with the city over its development at the South Road Properties (SRP).
The tag of anti-business was foisted on the mayor by Presidential Asst. for the Visayas Michael Dino who learned about Filinvest’s exit and persuaded other investors to look elsewhere in Central Visayas and Metro Cebu for greener, more friendly and less hostile pasture.
Dino had a previous frosty run-in with the mayor since his company was among the proponents of the Ciudad project in Banilad before it was blocked by Mayor Osmeña on the grounds that it would aggravate traffic in the area—that and the fact that it didn’t help that the project was being pursued by then Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia with whom he had a political falling out.
Having been appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte for his contributions to his campaign, Dino can cite previous experience as an indicator of how unpleasant the mayor can get when he perceives someone is crossing him.
Now with Mayor Osmeña having declared war on SM and Ayala for alleged irregularities in their deal with his predecessor, the development of the SRP–said to be Cebu City’s centerpiece project and among the chief reasons for Osmeña’s decision to run anew for mayor—appears at best to be uncertain and derailed.
Regardless of Dino’s challenge to the mayor to produce an investor that can at least make up for the loss of Filinvest at the SRP, the perception of a hostile and combative Cebu City Hall is something the mayor and his allies will have to deal with, not least of which is that it’s being fostered by someone with close ties to President Rodrigo Duterte.
Rather than run the risk of having investors flee Metro Cebu, it was to be expected of Dino to point to other potential investment destinations in the province particularly Mandaue City which had not encountered any volatile political rivalry thanks in large part to the close alliance between Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing and Rep. Jonas Cortes of Cebu’s 6th district.
And while Cebu officials like Talisay City Mayor Eduardo Gullas are only too willing to accept investors, the fact that they don’t have the infrastructure nor the talent pool that Cebu City has makes them a hard sell for investors, though they can be considered by heavy industry players.
The current uncertainty over the SRP owing to City Hall’s fight with its first major investors may be a good thing as far as spreading investments to other potential growth areas are concerned.
In the meantime, the development of SRP may go back to square one if SM and Ayala do decide to follow Filinvest and call it quits.