Sunday, August 7, 2011
REP. Tomas Osmeña (Cebu City, south district) threatened to sue Mayor Michael Rama and the City Legal Office if they will allow the Cebu Provincial Government and Fifth Avenue Development Corp. to push through with the P1.2-billion Ciudad project.
This, as Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said he will hire the services of a consultant of former mayor Alvin Garcia.
Other Premium Real Estate Property in CEBU NOWAt the height of his conflict with Mayor Rama over who should sign the contracts of legislative consultants, Young announced he will hire lawyer Rico Tautho as legal consultant.
Osmeña reacted to the legal opinion recently issued by City Hall’s legal office endorsing the Ciudad project.
“We will just see them in court… What this means is that the Ciudad investors and tenants stand to lose their investments. I’m just giving them a word of caution,” the congressman said, in a text message to Sun.Star Cebu.
Osmeña said Rama and the legal office are the same personalities who opposed his proposal to settle the claim of the heirs of Fr. Vicente Rallos for P24 million without interest.
Because of their opposition, Osmeña said the City lost in the case, with the Supreme Court (SC) ruling that the City owed the Ralloses P224 million with interest for turning private properties in Barangays Sambag I and Sambag II into a public road.
Aside from that, Osmeña pointed out that Rama and the legal office are the same personalities who opposed the P9-million claim of Roque Ting, a businessman, against the City.
Ting had sued the City for demolishing his warehouses and encroaching on his 4,222-square-meter property when the SRP was implemented in 1997.
Osmeña said the City lost in the case and was ordered by the SC to award Ting P60 million.
“Remember that the mayor apparently does not have a decent performance record in litigation. Maybe he thinks that by being mayor, his IQ has gone up. His ego maybe, but not his IQ,” he said.
Sought for comment, Rama said he will answer all the statements against him in tomorrow’s press conference.
The legal office said the land owned by the Province along the Banilad-Talamban corridor may be used for commercial development.
While it is a commercial development, the legal office said the Ciudad project is for “public use” since the public will have access to it.
This is still in line with City Ordinance 2193, which amended the 1996 Zoning Ordinance of Cebu City. Section 1 of that ordinance declared that all lands acquired under the Friar Lands Act shall be for public use.
On the consultancy issue in City Hall, the Cebu City Council approved during its last session the resolution authorizing Young to sign the contract of Tautho.
Earlier, Young said he hired Tautho for his expertise, as the lawyer was a consultant of Garcia for eight years.
In the early to mid 1990s, Garcia was still a member of the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).
When it was apparent that Garcia was going to break away from BOPK in 2000, Rama got entangled in a verbal tussle with Tautho over the South Road Properties, then the South Reclamation Project (SRP).
Tautho, aside from being Garcia’s consultant when Garcia was vice mayor and mayor, was also legal and project consultant of SRP and legal consultant for the Cebu South Road.
Among the SRP issues that Rama and Tautho disagreed on was the issuance of a turnover certificate of completion to the contractor of the SRP even before the contract expired because work was already done. Rama was then a councilor.
Tautho was also a director of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District from 2001 to 2006.
While City Attorney Joseph Bernaldez said the mayor is the “primary official” who can execute and sign all consultancy contracts, he signed the resolution of the bids and awards committee, as its vice chairman, to award the consultancy contract of Tautho as legal consultant of the Office of the Vice Mayor.
The committee resolved to authorize Young to enter into a contract with Tautho.
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