Gwen, Mike meet

CEBU Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama initially discussed how to resolve the plight of city constituents occupying Capitol lots, in a New Year’s Eve dinner hosted by a mutual friend.

Both officials separately confirmed the dinner and the mention of the 93-1 issue, but declined to reveal details. Businesswoman Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung, a former Bogo City mayoral candidate, hosted the dinner.

“I welcome the mayor’s recent pronouncements and his stand with regards to the other cases…As regards the 93-1 issue, I can fully understand his gesture because 93-1 involves his constituents living in the city, but in properties owned by the Province,” the governor told reporters.

She pointed out the resolution of the 93-1 issue is “inextricably linked” with issues like the Province’s stalled Ciudad project in Banilad, for which permits from City Hall will be needed.
But without giving details away, the governor said communication lines are open between the Capitol and City Hall, and that she finds the present mayor “rational, approachable and humble enough to recognize that no one is above the law.”

“That’s quite admirable,” she said.

Council update

Mayor Rama will meet the vice mayor and all city councilors this morning to discuss the 93-1 issue and may discuss Capitol’s proposed Ciudad project.

Ciudad is the proposed development project of the Province, which was aborted when the administration headed by then mayor Tomas Osmeña implemented a moratorium on new construction along the Banilad-Talamban corridor.

Rama would not confirm or deny, though, if there are plans to lift the moratorium, which would allow Capitol to proceed with the Ciudad project.

“I will be discussing this with the members of the council (today), so I don’t want to be preempting the outcome of the breakfast meeting,” Rama said. When asked if he thinks it’s time to lift the moratorium, the mayor said it will have to be discussed thoroughly.

He clarified that the meeting with the councilors has long been set, but since he was able to talk to the governor, he will also apprise them of the discussions, “because it’s also not good if I would just keep it to myself.”

Communication

In an interview yesterday, City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) board chairman Sylvan Jakosalem said he has attended several meetings with the governor regarding traffic management, but the Ciudad project and the moratorium were not discussed.

Like Rama, he declined from giving his own assessment on whether or not the traffic situation in the Banilad-Talamban area has improved, and whether or not the moratorium should be lifted.
The governor said she welcomed recent moves of Cebu City to coordinate with the Province on traffic management and the campaign against illegal fishing.

She said that Jakosalem has visited Capitol twice to discuss measures to ease the traffic conditions on the two Mandaue-Mactan bridges and Mandaue City, which can also affect road conditions in Cebu City.

What he and the governor agreed on, Jakosalem said, is to work together to improve the traffic situation on S. Osmeña Blvd., which leads to Mandaue City’s North Reclamation Area, and the two bridges.

Interviewed separately, the mayor declined to reveal the details of his conversation with the governor.

He, however, said he will bring it up with the council, as well as the ad hoc committee to resolve the problems surrounding the Provincial Ordinance 93-1. (It was that ordinance, approved 17 years ago, that allowed occupants of Province-owned lots in the city to acquire the property. Most, however, have not paid in full yet, despite extensions granted by the Province.)

Choices

The ad hoc committee comprises former city administrator Francisco Fernandez and City Councilors Alvin Dizon, Sisinio Andales, Nida Cabrera and City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete.
In a separate interview, Dizon told Sun.Star Cebu he did not know the mayor and the governor already had a one-on-one talk regarding the 93-1 issue.

“But anyway, let us just wait for the results of their dialogue…That’s something to look forward to,” he said.

Another issue that the Province and City have disagreed on is the power to appoint members of the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) board).

Garcia said yesterday she can grant Rama’s request to respect his choices, former Cebu City councilor Manuel Legaspi and former city administrator Juan Saul Montecillo.

However, the governor said she should be the one to make the appointments, in keeping withthe law and a recent court ruling.

Garcia said other vacancies in the board will be filled with “the most qualified and appropriate persons” that can best represent the Province’s interest.

Court move

As this developed, the Cebu City Government asked a trial court judge to reexamine his decision empowering the Office of the Governor to appoint members of the MCWD.

The City Hall said it “respectfully believes” that Judge Gilbert Moises erred in his ruling.

The governor, through the Provincial Legal Office, filed a motion last Dec. 22 seeking a permanent mandatory and prohibitory injunction.

In it, the governor said that should Mayor Rama pursue his plan to appoint new board members, it would render “ineffectual” the court’s judgment that gives the governor the power to appoint any member of the MCWD Board of Directors.

Judge Moises, of the Regional Trial Court Branch 18, earlier ruled the appointment of Joel Mari Yu to the MCWD board was “illegal, null and void,” since fewer than 75 percent of the district’s customers are in Cebu City.

In its motion for reconsideration, the City Government said the court erred in its finding that Section 3(b) of Presidential Decree 198, or the Local Water District Law, conferred on the governor the power to appoint MCWD board members.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 04, 2011.