Hundreds of beneficiaries of the 93-1 lots witness the signing of a memorandum of agreement between Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III for the land swap deal in front of the City Hall building in December 2016. | CDN FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines – State auditors flagged down the decades-old 93-1 land swap deal between the provincial government and city government of Cebu.
The Commission on Audit (COA) called out the attention of the two local governments for proceeding with the land swap deal despite the absence of approval from the commission.
“We recommended that management (Capitol) require the persons responsible to explain why COA approval was not secured prior to the execution of the deeds of conveyance by way of donation relative to the subject properties,” stated COA in their 167-page report to the Capitol for the fiscal year 2019.
The auditing agency also told the provincial government to ensure that future transactions involving the disposal of any Capitol-owned real properties through negotiations must have clearance from their office.
The current Capitol administration, during an exit conference with COA officials, said they will be issuing a follow-up letter to the former officials, saying they are yet to receive a response on the matter.
93-1
It can be recalled the previous administrations of the Capitol and the city government entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to formalize the swapping or exchange of several city-owned and Province-owned lots covered by 93-1.
The two local governments then sealed the deal by issuing the Deeds of Donation and Acceptance last August 2018.
Under the MOA, the province will transfer to the city government the ownership of the disputed residential lots along with a 1.5-hectare lot within the Department of Agriculture (DA) compound in Barangay Guadalupe, a 2,358-square-meter property along Gorordo Avenue in Barangay Lahug and a portion of a property in Barangay Capitol Site.
In exchange, the city will give at least 2.5 hectares in the South Road Properties (SRP), the abattoir, and the city’s septage treatment plant at the North Reclamation Area, a portion of Block 27 and the city-owned property in Barangay Pulpogan in Consolacion town.
COA disclosed that the Cebu Provincial Administrator in 2017 requested them for copies of a memorandum or circular permitting government agencies to proceed with real property disposal without COA’s approval.
Quoting response and comments from their Legal Affairs Office and Legal Services Sector, the agency said that land swapping is still subject to approval and review of state auditors even if it isn’t considered as public bidding.
“Land swapping, as defined under Republic Act No. 7229, refers to the process of land acquisition by exchanging land for another piece of land of equal value while negotiate sale has been defined under Section 184 of COA Circular 92-386 as the transfer of property with costs to other government offices,” explained COA.
“Land swapping evidently does not involve public auction, hence corollary to the foregoing, it could qualify as a negotiated sale as the same involves the transfer of property cost,” they added.
COA said their Audit Team has informed the previous Provincial Administrator of the comments of their Legal Services Sector of the Commission in a letter dated October 26, 2018.
In earlier reports, the present administrations of the Cebu Provincial Government and Cebu City Government eyed to renegotiate the 93-1 land swap deal, saying that the process undertaken by their predecessors was “erroneous.”
The Capitol, in 1993, issued Provincial Ordinance No. 93-1 that directed 5,000 families to pay a monthly amortization for residing in province-owned lots in Cebu City. The Cebu City Government decided to intervene through a land swap deal after no payment was made to the province. /bmjo