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Capitol consultant Rory Jon Sepulveda dared Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to bar the Garcias from using the South Coastal Road.
This is in response to Osmeña, who earlier challenged those who often criticized the South Road Properties not to use the SCR.
“I challenged Gov. Gwen Garcia including her brother (3rd district Rep. Pablo John Garcia), and her father (2nd district Rep. Pablo Garcia) not to use the SCR. They regularly pass by the SRP,” Osmeña said on Wednesday.
Since the SCR is a national road, it is not for Osmeña to select its users, said Sepulveda.
“I challenge Mayor Tomas Osmeña to try and bar the Garcias from using the SCR (and let's see what will happen next),” he said in Cebuano.
The governor, Sepulveda said, is one of the regular users of the SCR during her travels to either the northern or the southern parts of the province especially because of the bird species that may be found in the area.
According to Sepulveda, the court ruled that Osmeña has no control on who can use the SCR when he was barred from closing the road to motorists.
Osmeña said in an earlier interview that while the Garcias try to discredit the SRP, they often use the highway.
Without the SRP, he said there would be no coastal road to speak of.
Unlike the proposed Trans-axial highway project of the provincial government “that never took off,” the SRP has long been beneficial to the Cebuanos including the Garcia family, the mayor said.
Sepulveda said Osmeña was also barking up the wrong tree when he blamed the Garcia family for attacks against his project, the most recent of which was made by Tinago barangay councilor Joel Garganera.
The Garcias have nothing to do with issues that now hound his administration including the management of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and the Commission on Audit prohibition on the release of financial assistance to the Sinulog Foundation, he said.
“If Joel Garganera attacks you, don't attack the Capitol for it. If you get attacked about the Sinulog and the CCMC, don't lash out at the Garcias,” he said.
If the Garcias commented on the SRP, their comments were directed at the mayor's policies and not the project.
“We are not criticizing the SRP. What we are questioning are his policies on the (use and management of the) SRP. We wondered if the policies he wanted to implement are still justifiable especially since they have debts to pay and the project is not yet earning revenue),” he said.
The provincial government has been boasting of its zero debt and has been criticizing the Cebu City government for its loans that are still being paid for the SRP project.
But Osmeña said that without the SCR, there would be no alternative route toward the southern part of Cebu.
“Without Tomas Osmeña, there is nothing there,” he said.
He asked the people from Cebu province to look at what their governor has done for them.
The governor, according to him, has been insulting Cebu City without taking a look at their “failed” project such as the Trans-Axial road. WITH REPORTER MARIAN Z. CODILLA
