City drafts MOA to settle case on SRP lot sale

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Legal Office is now drafting the memorandum of agreement between the city government and Romulo Torres to settle the declaratory relief he filed against the city regarding the 45.2-hectare SRP lot sale.

City Attorney Joseph Bernaldez said Mayor Tomas Osmeña instructed him to work on the compromise agreement between Torres who questioned the 45-hectare lot sale in 2015 by the previous administration.

“We are in the process of drafting the compromise agreement between Torres and the City of Cebu represented by Mayor Tom,” Bernaldez told reporters.

To recall, the City Council authorized Osmeña to negotiate with the parties of cases in order to put an end to the matter such as the consignation case filed by giant firms against the city and the declaratory relief filed by Torres against members of the City Council.

Bernaldez said Osmeña already gave him the go signal to draft the MOA for the Torres case but he is yet to receive an order from the mayor about the consignation case.

In 2015, the previous administration sold a 45.2-hectare lot in SRP at P16.7 billion to the consortium of Ayala Land, Cebu Holdings Inc. and SM Prime Holdings for a 26.3-hectare property while the 19.2-hectare property was awarded to Filinvest Land Inc. in 2015.

These giant firms already paid P11 billion to the city and they are expected to settle the remaining balance this year, as agreed in the Deed of Sale.

However, Osmeña refused to accept their payment because of his questions on the legality of the transaction.

These firms filed a consignation case in court.

Bernaldez said the approved resolution, which was authored by City Councilors David Tumulak and Mary Ann de los Santos, already authorized Osmeña to negotiate with Torres even if the mayor is not a party to the case.

Torres filed the case against Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and other members of the City Council in the previous administration.

Labella already mentioned in the previous regular session that the mayor should not be the one to negotiate since he is not a party to the case.

“To be very candid about it, ang korte man gud will always favor any attempt or any decision of the parties to settle the matter amicably,” he said adding that the court wants to terminate the cases to unclog the docket of the court.  (FREEMAN)