Cebu to get richer as Capitol moves to reassess value of real properties

The Cebu Provincial Capitol (CDN Digital Photo/Rosalie Abatayo)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu province, the country’s richest with real assets standing at P34 billion, may get wealthier this year as the Capitol moves for the reappraisal of all its real estate properties to match with current market values.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said she has instructed the province’s appraisal committee to reassess the value of Capitol’s assets.

Garcia said the current values of the provincial properties are already obsolete since the last appraisal was in 2008 yet or more than a decade ago.

According to Section 219 or the general revision of assessments and property classification clause of the Local Government Code, the provincial assessor should conduct a reassessment on the values of real properties every three years.

Considering inflation and other economic factors that change over time, the Capitol expects that the value of its total assets will shoot up, just like how it did after the last appraisal in 2008.

“Mao to nga  (That was why) when I became governor, taking into account realistic fair market values in 2008, our assets shot up from P7 to P8 billion to about P21 billion. Karon (Now), we are still standing at around P22 or P23 billion which is a natural consequence of a 10 percent increase in fair market values which is really not a realistic figure because we know how the prices have been going through the roof,” Garcia explained.

In the 2018 report of the Commission on Audit, Cebu province was regarded as the richest in the country with P34 billion in total assets.

Aside from the reappraisal, the two towers in the Filinvest Cyberzone Complex (FCC) along W. Geonzon Street at the Cebu IT Park will also be of addition to the province’s assets.

The four-tower Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) complex is a joint venture between the Cebu provincial government and Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) through a Build, Transfer, and Operate (BTO) Agreement in 2012.

This means that the province has allowed FLI to develop its 12,000-square meter property into the FCC. Upon completion, FLI is to turn over fully the ownership of the property to the provincial government.

In turn, the firm is entitled to operate the property for a renewable term of 25 years.

On Tuesday, October 8, FLI officially turned over FCC Tower II to Cebu province after it signed the Deed of Conveyance with Garcia. The first tower, which is now operational, has been turned over in 2016.

The two towers cost at least P3.5 billion.

On top of this, FLI is also renting the lot for around P600,000 every month. The province also gets 2 percent of the gross annual revenue of FCC or P500,000 per month, depending on which is higher.

But Garcia said she is yet to renegotiate the province’s share of the gross revenues of FCC and the rental fee as the present values may also be obsolete since the BTO was signed in 2012 yet or seven years ago./elb