Project for Cebuanos

Members of the Cebu City council, particularly those opposed to Mayor Tomas Osmeña, ought to view with an open mind the unsolicited proposal of the Gokongwei Group to lease an eight-hectare portion of the South Road Properties for 50 years. While the price of the lease will probably not be known until negotiations start in earnest, the fact that JG Summit intends to pour P18 billion to an intended integrated resort should be enough incentive to set aside politics for the public good.

The integrated resort, which will host several international brand hotels, a water theme park, a convention center, a casino, a shopping mall, and a performing arts theater, will be Cebu’s answer to Metro Manila’s City of Dreams, Resorts World, and Okada. More importantly, it will create anywhere between 5,000 to 8,000 local jobs. And here is where the icing on the cake is -after 50 years, ownership of the complex reverts back to the city, and ultimately its people.

After 50 years, probably none of the Cebu City politicians alive today will still be around by that time, so there should be no point in letting politics mess up a project that can only ultimately help secure the future of future generations of Cebuanos. The best thing that can happen is, the present crop of politicians can leave their fingerprints on this project by helping see it through, thereby ensuring their own legacy in something truly beneficial and relevant for the city.

The rap by some opposition councilors that Osmeña is being selective in his development plans for the city by endorsing this project while thumbing down several earlier big ticket projects at SRP is, at best, very petty. True, Osmeña rejected those earlier huge projects. And true, Osmeña did so because of politics, which is very petty as well.

But we cannot dwell forever on these petty political episodes of our leaders. To do so is to focus too much on the few trees and miss completely the vast expanse of the forest. What is needed is an appreciation of the whole picture. Rejection by Osmeña of earlier projects may have been a bad decision but that is water under the bridge. We need to move on. Now that another big ticket project is up, we cannot let past blunders get in the way of new opportunities.

And what a tremendous opportunity the unsolicited proposal of the Gokongwei Group is. P18 billion in investments is something that does not happen all the time in the life of a city. The prospect of employing up to 8,000 Filipinos, most of them Cebuanos, is something other places would even give up a part of their patrimony for. This is something you just do not pass up. This is something you do not spoil just for politics sake.

There is also something sentimentally appealing in the proposed project. John Gokongwei, the 91-year-old patriarch of the Gokongwei Group, is a Cebuano who built his empire from scratch in the most challenging environment anyone can have. Losing his father to the ravages of WWII in Cebu, Gokongwei was thrust into the role of breadwinner at a very early age. From a book about self-made taipans, I learned he used to pedal on a bike all the way up north to sell anything that sells.

And now his companies are into just about any industry there is. Yet in the twilight of his years, he wants to put the best there is back to his native Cebu. And I cannot imagine why anyone in his right mind would let petty politics get in the way of such a project that showcases the best of what a Cebuano can do for all his fellow Cebuanos. To let this project slip away is simply unconscionable.