Reprieve

Just when Cebu City was about to lose face for failing to pay the P173-million amortization for the South Road Properties (SRP) loan, Mayor Michael Rama announced that Landbank agreed to defer the payment, plus charges, to August this year.

Which is as it should be owing to the constant tug-of-war over finances between the mayor and the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan bloc in the City Council especially involving the SRP.

But while city residents can breathe a little easier, there is no small amount of outrage over the way the powers that be engage in their little power plays just for the sake of making themselves look good to their constituents.

It’s high time both sides explain fully the conditions of the loan agreement to see whether it’s beneficial to simply pay off the remaining balance and be done with it or if it can be proven that paying the loan amount in full won’t guarantee the end of the loan agreement.

Taking out the obvious reason that they don’t want to get one-upped by Rama in front of Cebu City voters, not a few are wondering why the BO-PK bloc whose leader, former mayor Tomas Osmeña, had been taking every occasion to put down the mayor, doesn’t support the full payment of the SRP loan.

One is that agreeing to the Supplemental Budget 1 which contained the P2.4-billion payment for the outstanding balance will give Rama the elbow room he needs to demand more funds sourced from the payments of the SRP lots by two major developers.

Maybe they have good reason not to trust the mayor, whose fiscal management leaves much to be desired, with managing and using the SRP lot profits. Still, it’s hard to argue with the mayor’s position that the full payment of the remaining loan balance would have relieved the city of having to continually pay for it for years, until the loan matures in 2025.

So far, Osmeña’s criticism revolved around Rama’s fiscal management style and his failure to source funds to just pay for the P173 million and the succeeding payments to the SRP loan.

But unless the BO-PK fully explains its position to the public, Rama will make political capital out of their refusal to give him authority to settle the debt once and for all and Rama’s accusations that they are obstructionists won’t end at least until after Election Day when the voters decide whether or not he gets reelected.

Being a good payer, Cebu City may have gotten a temporary break but they cannot rely on the good graces of Landbank and the Japanese government to grant it another extension beyond August. By that time, city voters will know how the city government will deal with that situation.