Soon-Ruiz cries foul over road project
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 12:34:00 09/03/2008
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Representative Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district) has accused Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes of playing politics in stopping a road cementing and drainage project for F.C. Persons Road in Barangay (village) Centro, her spokesman said.
Lawyer Gonzalo Malig-on Jr., a spokesman for Soon-Ruiz, said the congresswoman’s office had already set aside P2.3 million from her Priority Development Assistance Fund for the project, to be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
The project was to start last month had City Hall not stopped it, Malig-on said.
In a letter to the DPWH, City Engineer Antonio Sanchez said the congresswoman’s project was stopped because the city already had its own plans to asphalt the road.
Sanchez said the only thing the city could do for the DPWH was grant excavation permits for the agency’s drainage plans along the road.
The land where the DPWH plans to create the drainage system is privately owned, the city engineer said. He suggested that the DPWH coordinate with barangay officials for the drainage project.
Meanwhile, the Mandaue City Council is urging Cortes to retrieve foreshore lots being claimed by a private developer in Barangay Tipolo.
As foreshore lots, they cannot be owned by a private entity, the council said.
On Tuesday, settlers occupying the lots near Jaime Compound trooped to the City Hall to ask the mayor to retrieve the property. The settlers were among those who were asked by Eric and Harry Realty Inc. to leave.
Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna said the realty company has no power over the foreshore lots because part of Mandaue City’s Charter decrees that the city government owns all foreshore lands in its territory. /Correspondent Chris A. Ligan and Reporter Dale G. Israel
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