WHAT happened to the South Road Properties (SRP)? Why is there more grass than infrastructure?
These were among the questions raised by the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), which gave the Cebu City Government the loan for the SRP.
JICA officials met with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama last Monday and it was during that meeting that they shared their disappointment that development in the area was slow.
The questions irked Rama.
“I didn’t like it. I am thankful for the loan but kinsay tag-iya sa SRP, sila o kita (who owns the SRP, them or us)?” Rama said.
He reportedly asked the JICA officials about the ballooning debt of the City Government on the SRP because of a stronger yen.
If it is the intention of JICA to help, he also, then the agency should also work to protect Cebu City’s loan from another increase. JICA is a lending agency that prioritizes developing countries.
The City’s loan from JBIC has grown three-folds since 1995 because of fluctuations in the yen’s value.
The City Government budgets P589 million every year for debt servicing; it will have to keep paying until 2020. Rama said this represents billions of services removed from Cebu City’s constituents.
This prompted Rama to call the Cebu City Council hambugero (haughty) after Councilor Noel Wenceslao proposed an ordinance that provides that no person, employee or official of the City Government will be authorized to sell, dispose, transfer or convey any lots in the SRP without prior approval from the City Council.
“Maybe the vice mayor (Joy Augustus Young) is not doing his job,” said Rama. At the caucus, he said, it should have been pointed out that there was no need to file such an ordinance.
That would have saved Councilor Wenceslao from being embarrassed for such “ignorance,” the mayor said.
Even JICA is aware of the political bickering in Cebu City, which the agency officials also raised during the Monday meeting.
This brought Rama to revisit the proposal to have a separate authority to manage the SRP.
This will be different from the SRP Management Office (SRPMO), which does not have powers over financial resources.
The SRP Office that Rama envisions will be apolitical and have overall authority over SRP concerns.
One problem that City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete is facing now is the reconciliation of resources and documents.
Rama directed Poblete and Bu Varquez of SRPMO and the Cebu Investment Promotions Center (CIPC) to make an SRP presentation last year yet. The presentation is supposed to take up the balance of the loan and how much payment the City has received from developers like SM Prime Holdings Inc. and Filinvest Land Inc.
In the absence of a separate SRP office, though, Poblete has to tap accounting and other departments to make a holistic presentation.
The mayor also wants the CIPC to liquidate the financial assistance that the City Government gives the organization, which is also the marketing arm of the SRP.
Rama said he wished that the reconciliation of records can be done immediately so he can include this in his State of the City Address early next month.
Rama said a separate office is also what JICA wants.
This way, the management of SRP will transcend politicians and will not be under a “one-man” rule. Rama was apparently referring to Rep. Tomas Osmeña.
Rama, though, reminded the congressman that he does not own the SRP. Osmeña has called the project his “baby.”
The idea behind waiting a few years to sell the SRP is that the price of the property will be about P40,000 in a couple of years, Osmeña has repeatedly explained.
He also wants to be more discriminating on the investors because he does not want new developers to compete with SM and Filinvest.
Rama, though, recognized that the creation of a separate office for SRP will have to go through the Cebu City Council, where his allies form the minority.
This is why he opted for the creation of an SRP ad hoc committee to study and recommend disposition of SRP lots because it will be under the executive branch.
The mayor recognized, though, that he cannot sell the SRP without authority from the council.
Rama said that JICA has been regularly monitoring the progress of SRP and they want to see a faster development. So far, there are only two locators in the area.
JICA is already aware of the ad hoc committee formed and the mayor hopes the committee will soon metamorphose into an SRP Office.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on June 27, 2012.
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