Dino dares Tom: Sell SRP lot in one month

CEBU, Philippines - The word war between Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña takes another turn with the former accepting the latter’s challenge for him to vacate his office — but under one condition.

Dino said he will only “go away” if Osmeña could sell the 45-hectare lot at the South Road Properties at P110,000 per square meter within one month starting yesterday.

"I challenge him. Kung makabaligya ba siya in that amount to one single investor kay kung di, tan-awon nato kung kinsa ang ma-alis diyan (I challenge him to sell the property for that amount because if not, let’s see who gets shooed away)," Dino told reporters in a press conference yesterday.

Sought for comment, Osmeña’s brief reply was: “Tell him he is not the mayor. I decide what I do and what I want to do.”

Osmeña intends to rescind the deal entered into by the former city administration with SM and Ayala consortium and the Filinvest Land Inc. after the city reportedly sold the 45-hectare SRP lot at only P38,000 per square meter.

FLI has already announced its plan to revoke its contract with the city.

Dino earlier tagged the mayor as a “bully, anti-business and anti-poor,” citing a string of moves by Osmeña, including threatening to close all branches of well-known bank, which Dino said resulted to a gloomy business climate in the city.

But Osmeña countered this by saying he is anti-corruption and anti-tax evaders, not anti-business.

At the Visayas Ecozone 2017 Summit yesterday in Lapu-Lapu City, Dino said instead of harassing and arm-twisting businessmen, local government officials should work to provide a business-friendly environment for them.

He called on mayors and governors to help establish an environment conducive to investment in line with President Duterte’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda, which aims, among others, to increase competitiveness and improve ease of doing business.

“I urge you to inculcate this third point and emphasize the term ‘competitiveness’ of doing business. This can only be realized if we have a friendly local government that will veer away long queue of taxpayers transacting business, an LGU that has no devil-lieutenants who collect 10 percent kickback in business transactions, an LGU that releases business permits in three days, without hassle of red tapes," Dino said.

Dino believes that such models will attract more business activities in towns and cities and draw in more foreign direct investments.

He also assured Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) stakeholders of his full support and advised them to report to his office incidents of harassment by any government office  so “we could show how this administration deals with the grafters.”

Dino also enjoined the summit attendees to promote not only viable sites for local and foreign investors, but also share good business practices with them.

The two-day summit hopes to finalize a so-called “ecozone masterplan” for the Philippines in preparation for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in April. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon with Jean Marvette A. Demecillo (FREEMAN)