The Cebu City Council asked the SM-Ayala consortium to produce a copy of the deed of sale on a 26-hectare site at the South Road Properties (SRP) that City Hall is considering to develop as a one-stop sports hub.
During a May 8 session with consortium representatives and officials of the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) and City Treasurer’s Office, Councilor Margot Osmeña requested for a copy of the deed of sale.
“The Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Council) doesn’t have a copy. I wondered why…We requested the SP but there was no copy,” said Osmeña, wife of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
The mayor announced plans last March to develop a one-stop sports hub consisting of four football fields, swimming pools, oval tracks and soccer fields.
The SM-Ayala consortium also considered building a sports stadium on the site.
The council held a session to clarify the lot’s status after Mayor Osmeña claimed that the 26-hectare lot bought by the consortium at P10 billion back in 2014 was illegally purchased.
The deed of sale between the city government and the consortium would serve as proof that the transaction was legal, Councilor Osmeña said.
The consortium’s legal counsel, Samuel Peña, said work on a world-class sports stadium that would cover three hectares was supposed to start two years ago.
But he said they cannot proceed without a development permit from City Hall. Peña said the CPDO wrote the consortium in 2014,
telling them they had deferred issuing the development permit due to construction of the SM Seaside mall at the time.
“The position of the parties is that issue of SMPHC (SM Prime Holdings Corp.), in respect to SM Seaside, shows that SM Seaside does not affect the issue of the development permit,” Peña said.