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CEBU CITY, Philippines - A city official on Tuesday urged the Cebu Provincial government not to delay the city's deal with Filinvest Land Inc. to develop a portion of the 300-hectare South Road Properties (SRP).
Cebu City administrator Francisco Fernandez made the appeal after Capitol reportedly was contemplating on going to court after the Joint Venture Selection Committee (JVSC) rejected Capitol's offer to challenge the Filinvest proposal.
Fernandez said he was worried about Capitol's possible filing of an injunction that might delay the implementation of the Filinvest project for the 50.6 hectare SRP property under a joint venture agreement with the city government.
Fernandez said he made the appeal because the P25-billion deal with Filinvest was about to be completed.
He said the money from the deal would relieve the city of its roughly P1 million per day in payment to the loans incurred to build the SRP.
Fernandez, however, said that if the province will pursue its plan to sue then, the city will fight back.
“We want peace but if the enemy will fight then we will fight back and fight to the finish,” Fernandez said.
He said it would depend on the courts to decide if the signing should be put off pending resolution of the case.
“Depende na sa courts on how they will handle that. But I hope they won't do it because the SRP cost the city of Cebu millions of pesos for the loan payments everyday,” Fernandez told Cebu Daily News.
Based on the Joint Venture (JV) ordinance, the city can only award the project to the proponent at least 30 days after the second publication of the invitation to bid. The second publication was on December 15.
But the committee previously said that it might take 60 days after the second publication because the committee has to review the actual proposal of Filinvest.
Capitol's legal option was announced by Representative Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd district) last Monday in Aloguinsan town in midwest Cebu.
Garcia said that Capitol would take the legal option after the city rejected twice Capitol's offer to challenge the Filinvest proposal.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who is in Houston, Texas undergoing treatment for his cancer, called Fernandez yesterday morning after he read the announcement in the papers.
Fernandez and even Joel Mari Yu, director of the Cebu Investment Promotions Center, assured the mayor that the city could face the challenges that might be thrown at them.
The JVSC first disqualified the Cebu Provincial government on December 22. But the latter made an appeal which was once again denied because of the same reason it was disqualified on its first attempt.
The main reason for disqualification is that the JV ordinance which the JVSC is following requires a private sector to be the city's partner in entering into a joint project. /Reporter Marian Z. Codilla
