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A major convention-hotel and an entertainment center will soon rise on what used to be Kawit Island at the South Road Properties (SRP), according to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
Osmeña clarified that the city has no intention of selling Kawit Island as previously reported.
With this new investment, Cebu City could earn through lease or joint venture (JV) scheme.
“My proposal is we get the percentage of the sales, not the lease. It is better for the city, better for them (investor),” the mayor said.
With the hotel and entertainment center, the city could earn in the same way as it would earn from the Filinvest.
“Same thing like Filinvest where we get a 10,500 sq m or 10 percent of the sales para kung musaka jud ang presyo, 10 percent of the sales might be more than the 10,500. When you are selling a condo, it is almost P100,000 per sq m. That's more or less mga high-end condominiums karun. So if you divide the land it's 10,000 per sq m and if supposed they build a 20-story building, P20,000 per sq m, we will take the 10 percent from the first to the sixth floor,” Osmeña said.
He said that he had structured the JV for the city to earn more.
“I've structured it that way so that even later on, if musaka ang presyo and they start to build high rises, it is fine and we are not stuck to the minimum amount of P10,500 per sq m. We have the option or 10 percent of the sales, whichever is higher,” he added.
“Ilang abang P1,000 ra a day or a minute or whatever. That's why I said it's better to have an arrangement when times are bad, you pay less. When times are good, you pay more so that kung gutom gyud na or times are very good we get a share that's the way I'm trying to do it. Whatever we have an arrangement, if times are bad they pay less,” Osmeña explained further.
Mayor Osmeña said the Cebu province has discriminated the JV agreement of the Filinvest and the city of Cebu specially on the issue of income.
The mayor reiterated his challenge for Rep. Pablo John Garcia, Cebu 3rd district, to show a copy of the contract between Taguig City and RA II Builders, which Garcia claimed is seven times better than the city's JV agreement with Filinvest.
“I can’t accept that somebody is smarter than us, so I said why don't you show us a copy of the joint venture of Taguig? After all when he asked for a copy of the JV, we gave it to him. Why doesn’t he show it to us specially when he was using that to demonstrate that I should go to jail for plunder? We meet his challenge and see actually what the deal is. Right now I can't really compare. He's hiding it man. You have to keep in mind he chose the project. I did not choose the project. He searched the whole universe and he found the JV and said it is seven times better and now he's not showing us a copy,” Osmeña said.
The mayor also defended that his trip to Camiguin was to attend the golden wedding anniversary of Rep. Pedro Romualdo and his wife and not to influence the possible decision of the congressional inquiry initiated by Garcia on the Filinvest's JV agreement with the city.
“They (province) are very malicious but let me tell you if you are celebrating a golden wedding anniversary, do you have time to discuss a congressional inquiry? I just went to the congressman and told him we can answer all the questions. The only question we can't answer is about the Taguig contract because we don't have a copy. This is the guy's happy day. I said to the congressman we'll see each other soon. It's not polite to discuss such things because the person is celebrating a wedding anniversary, it is not just a birthday,” the mayor said.
Osmeña showed a copy of the invitation to the Romualdos' wedding anniversary and said that he decided to go because Camiguin has been very supportive of the Sinulog by fielding a contingent until two years ago due to financial constraints.
“I know its very awkward for me to go. Maybe we will be seen, bahala na we were invited,” he said.
