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CEBU CITY, Philippines ? Even if he is in the United States seeking treatment for his cancer ailment, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña offered to help the Technical Educational Skills and Development Authority in Central Visayas (Tesda-7) in its fight to keep a 1.9-hectare lot that the provincial government is trying to recover.
Osmeña said in a text message which he sent to Councilor Gerardo Carillo said that he would oppose any plans to evict Tesda and other national agencies that occupy ?so-called provincial lands.?
Carillo forwarded the mayor's text message to Cebu Daily News on Tuesday night.
?The eviction of Tesda to pave the way for a reported Casino is consistent with the governor's anti-poor stance. And to think that most of Tesda's students are from the province seeking to break out of a life of marginalized farming,? the text message said.
Osmeña said in his text message that he was prepared to take legal actions to ensure that national government agencies would retain their occupancy of these lots.
Rory Jon Sepulveda, provincial consultant on information and revenue generation, said that if the mayor indeed sent a text message, such a message was ?pathetic.?
He said it was incorrect to accuse the governor of pushing for the recovery of province-owned lots.
He said that she is only trying to enforce a resolution which the provincial board passed asking her to initiate the recovery of these lots.
?This (recovery of province-owned lots) is not a policy of the governor but of the province of Cebu,? Sepulveda told Cebu Daily News.
He said the province has no intention of using the lot for the operation of a casino.
He said objections from the city government on the province's plan to recover the lot is without legal basis since the city government is not a party to the eviction case that the province will file against Tesda.
?The city is not a party to the case. They can object as much as they can but this will be a case between the province and the possessor of the land,? he said.
He said the province offered to help in the relocation of Tesda, which is a national-funded office and offered to replicate its vital properties.
The province only withdrew the offer after Augusto Syjuco,Tesda director general, pursued the eviction case and asserted Tesda's ownership of the property in a letter to governor dated July 29.
Sepulveda said the mayor should not intervene with the province;s dealings with Tesda and instead focus on addressing the problems of the city.
Meanwhile, Cebu City barangay officials prayed for the speedy recovery of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña in a special healing mass held at the Redemptorist church.
?We're praying that he would be cured as soon as possible. That he won't have any complications from his ailment,? barangay (village) Captain Sesinio Andales of Pahina Central said in Cebuano during Tuesday's mass.
The mayor is scheduled to go to Houston, Texas with his wife Margot to undergo operation for the removal of his urinary bladder which he earlier said had become cancerous.
Barangay Captain George Rama of Basak-San Nicolas said his brother, the US-based Dr. Adolfo Rama, is accompanying the mayor to the ND Anderson Cancer center in Houston, Texas. /Reporter Doris C. Bongcac with a report from Corespondent Chris A. Ligan
