Rama presses Filinvest anew for city’s P400 million share

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama met with officials of the Filinvest Land Inc. in Manila yesterday to try to convince the developer to pay P400 million – or a substantial part – as the city’s share of revenue for their joint venture to develop part of the South Road Properties (SRP).

City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo said he expects some “good news” out of the meeting he had with the mayor, acting City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas and Filinvest officials.

Filinvest may agree to pay a portion as a “compromise,” said City Hall sources.

Seniors aid

The cash is needed to boost city revenues to meet several yearend obligations, including the balance of P4,000 as cash aid for each senior citizen.

The City Treasurer’s Office earlier estimated P1 billion as this year’s share from the Filinvest joint venture but has so far collected P160 million.

Mayor Rama announced last Monday that the city would release P2,000 to senior citizens on Dec. 20 and 21 with the balance of P2,000 to come later.

Last Sept. 13, the City Legal Office wrote to Filinvest vice chairman Andrew Gotianun Jr. demanding payment of the city’s share for the development of a 10.6 hectare SRP lot.

Remittances

Section 8 of the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between the city and Filinvest signed on Feb. 3, 2009 states that the city government shall receive a share of profits from the sale of developed units in the Joint Venture Properties or 10 percent of gross sales proceeds on a quarterly basis.

Tristan Las Marias, Filinvest president for Visayas and Mindanao, earlier said the P80 million of Filinvest’s P160 million remittances were advanced for the city’s profit share on sales which they have not even collected yet from clients.

Still, City Hall issued a demand letter to pay up by Dec. 6 or or face charges in court.

Yesterday, the Cebu City Council tackled the mayors request for Supplemental Budget 3 worth P140.3 million.

City Budget Officer Nelfa Briones said the supplemental budget will be funded from unspent interest expenses worth P64.5 million, gain/loss of the city’s payment to its SRP loan worth P45.9 million and savings from personal services appropriations worth P29.9 million.

Programmed

Asked why the city is using fund sources other than the calamity funds to fund the mayor’s request for “calamity financial assistance” for employees at P20,000 each, Briones said the 2013 calamity funds were already “programmed” and can’t be used for another purpose.

But Briones was unable to answer why Cebu City Hall decided to give a P20,000 calamity assistance instead of the annual extra cash gift for employees and whether all employees would qualify for the aid even if they aren’t calamity victims.

“It’s Mayor Michael Rama’s idea to give the employees,” she said.

The city’s Program on Awards Incentives for Service Excellence (Praise) committee passed a resolution on Dec. 11 to recommend the release of P20,000 as calamity aid to each employee.

It cited the destruction caused by the Oct. 15 earthquake and supertyphoon Yolanda as the reason behind the allocation of the assistance.