Legal opinion sought on real owner of Kawit Island

KAWIT PROPERTY
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

IS CONSTRUCTING recreational infrastructures such as casinos and resorts on the eight-hectare Kawit Island in the South Road Properties (SRP) legal?

The Cebu City Council would like the City Legal Office to answer this question after legal concerns were raised during the ad-hoc committee’s session last March wherein it was found out that two hectares of the property were supposedly donated by the city to the Department of Health (DOH).

The approved resolution was penned by Cebu City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia who is also one of the members of the ad-hoc committee of the council tasked to scrutinize the joint-venture agreement (JVA) between the Cebu City Government and Universal Hotels and Resorts Inc. (UHRI).

The Gokongwei-led UHRI is the proponent who submitted an unsolicited proposal to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña last November to develop the Kawit Property into an integrated resort and hotel worth P18 billion.

“The legal opinion will have a big impact considering we are now scrutinizing a P18-billion project. The MOA states that the place can only be used for socio–economic purposes. It does not mention about recreation and casinos. That’s the question that has to be answered — can we readily build a casino?” said Garcia during the April 24 discussions.

“Let the legal department make a stand so that we can be guided,” he added.

The councilor was referring to the MOA the Cebu City Government entered with the DOH in 2007, through Executive Order (EO) No. 43, wherein the former is expected to donate two hectares of Kawit Property to the latter.

But in 2008, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Presidential Proclamation No. 1505 granting the city government full control and ownership of the entire SRP.

“The Presidential Proclamation raised a legal question on the effectivity of the prior MOAs entered into by DOH and Cebu City, and there is a need to refer this matter to the City Legal Office for the issuance of a legal opinion in order to ascertain the true obligation of the City,” Garcia stated in his resolution.

On the other hand, Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos revealed that the City Legal Office has already issued a legal opinion last November 21, 2017 wherein the DOH is tasked to issue a certification that there will be no projects to be undertaken on the site, and it “undertakes to interpose no objection to the issuance of Presidential Proclamation of 1505.”

“Thus the issuance of Presidential Proclamation of 1505 is an offshoot to the DOH obligations under the MOA. It consequently superceded EO No. 43, divesting DOH of any of its rights of Kawit Island,” de los Santos explained.