Isla dela Victoria project: Netizens challenge Osmeña, Labella to a debate
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Their social media exchanges are far from over.
Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgar Labella posted on his Facebook page at noontime today, April 1, another criticism against the implementation of the Isla dela Victoria project.
Labella, the mayoral candidate for Barug PDP-Laban, also posted a comparison of the project with the proposal of the SM-Ayala Consortium to develop a 26-hectare lot at the South Road Properties (SRP) which they earlier bought from the Cebu City government.
The consortium was planning to put up an Information Technology (IT) Park — a requirement which they needed for their registration agreement with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).
Had it been implemented, Labella said that the city could have earned P10.7 billion worth of revenues that would have been more than enough to address its flooding, garbage, traffic, housing, education and health problems “that you (Osmeña) continue to fail addressing during your tenure as mayor since 1988.”
When sought for comment, Mayor Tomas Osmeña of the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) said that he will answer Labella’s latest tirades on his Facebook page.
“I will answer in facebook. And expose the anomaly. This seems to be an indirect solicitation to SM, Ayala and Filinvest to raise money for their campaign depriving the Cebuanos of P50B of SRP property,” Osmeña said in a text message to Cebu Daily News Digital.
Read More: Isla dela Victoria project a hot topic in Cebu City’s campaign scene
To put an end to their social media exchanges, some netizens who followed Labella’s recent post proposed a debate between the two mayoral candidates.
“Mr. Liebella, I’m sure the netizens of Cebu are getting tired of these FB ping pong games. I can answer all of your issues in front of a LIVE-steamed and televised audience. Can you answer mine?” said Osmeña on his FB page at 2 p.m. today.
CDN Digital is yet to receive a reply from Labella as of this writing.
A comparison of the two projects which Vice Mayor Edgar Labella posted on his Facebook page.
In an FB post at around noontime today, Labella insisted that the implementation of the Isla dela Victoria project remains grossly disadvantageous to the city.
“Joint ventures in the private sector usually have a 60-40 sharing scheme, with the lot owner receiving 40 percent share despite not investing cash (aside from land) in the joint venture project. Thus, it is misleading for Mr. Osmeña to claim that the 10 percent share is advantageous to Cebu City because the city did not invest cash in the JV,” said Labella’s post.
Labella said that job generation cannot even be considered a primary consideration for pushing the joint venture deal with the Gokongwei-led Universal Hotel and Resorts Inc. (UHRI).
“ If Mr. Osmeña wants job generation, why did he block since 2016 the implementation of the SM-Ayala Project at SRP which could have generated at least 450,000 jobs compared to the 5,000 jobs from the Kawit Project?”
“Mr. Osmeña,you keep calling us “Team Babag” for opposing the grossly disadvantageous Kawit Deal, but you are the original “MR. BABAG” because it was you who BLOCKED the implementation of the SM-AYALA Project which already brought in at least P10.7 billion of revenues to Cebu City.”
Two hours later, Osmeña posted on his FB page that the consortium’s project cannot be implemented because it lacked the approval of the Commission on Audit (COA).
While the lot sold to the consortium was underpriced, Osmeña also mentioned of at least nine “fatal” defects in the transaction that will surely get COA disallowance. This included former mayor Michal Rama’s lack of authority from the Cebu City Council to sign the deed of sale for the SRP lot.
Osmeña also alleged that the transaction between Rama, who is now Labella’s vice mayoral candidate, and the “illegitimate” consortium was never even made public. /dcb
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