Tomas vows legal, financial help for vendors

CEBU, Philippines —  Former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña vowed to help vendors at Carbon Public Market who are affected by its modernization through legal assistance.

Osmeña met Friday with some vendors who opposed to the redevelopment of the market, saying he won’t allow the modernization of Carbon Public Market to continue.

He described it as “very anti-poor because the marginalized vendor will be eliminated” allowing huge companies to benefit.

“A public market is a public market. It is not a private market,” Osmeña said, adding that the purpose of public market is to give chance to the small vendors to compete with the big markets.

“Dili man tuyo sa gobiyerno nga naay merkado nga makakwarta, that is not correct,” he furthered.

The former mayor also hit then vice mayor, now Mayor Michael Rama whom he said signed a resolution without even reading it.

“…for the first time in history, nakadungog ko sa vice mayor nga si Rama ug mayor karon, nga nipirma sila og resolution pero iyang gi-admit nga dili siya nabasa. Asa ka mangita og elected official nga mopirma without reading. That is illegal. That is not only illegal, that is immoral and it is an insult to the people of Cebu,” Osmeña said.

The former mayor said if his wife, Margot, will be elected as the mayor in 2022 elections, they will exhaust all legal remedies to “rescind” the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between the Cebu City government and the Megawide Construction Corp. for the P5.5 billion redevelopment project of Carbon Public Market.

“Daghan kaayo ang factor nga illegal pero di man kamo manlalaban, mo hatag lang ko og assurance nga andam ko motabang, ang tanang magasto sa legal para makab-ot sa atong mga pobre,” Osmeña said.

Sought for reaction, Rama said Osmeña is entitled to his own imagination while saying that they are doing some curative measures regarding the JVA.

The city is re-negotiating via a supplemental Memorandum of Agreement and Rama hopes that everything will be finalized before the year ends.

Rama disclosed that he has not yet joined in the discussions about this previously due to some people involved in it, but he did not elaborate on who and why.

Rama said he will check on the latest development over the matter as soon as possible.

“Something has to be concretized by the end of the year, hopefully. Sagdi lang ng ubang mga politiko kung mangapil sila...and that is always subject to their own imagination…entitled na sila sa ilang imagination,” said Rama.

The late Cebu City mayor Edgardo Labella who led the ground-breaking activity earlier this year said there is no impediment in the JVA the city undertook with Megawide Construction Corp. for the modernization of the Carbon Public Market.

It’s been almost a year since the City Council approved the contract. But a supplemental MOA was adopted in September following some concerns pointed out by Rama, who was the vice mayor at that time.

Some concerns had even reached the court after a multi-sectoral group filed a petition before the Regional Trial Court over the various provisions of the agreement.

In the proposed six-page MOA of Rama, additional documents are required as an integral part of the JVA including the complete original unsolicited proposal duly submitted by the private sector proponent (PSP), Megawide, feasibility study (including a financial projection for the proposed project), eligibility documents, the appointment of the members of the Joint Venture Selection Committee (JVSC), JVSC minutes of the initial evaluation of the PSP unsolicited proposal and its recommendation on the PSP proposal, Certificate of Acceptance by the local chief executive (LCE) of the PSP unsolicited proposal, approved tender/selection documents for the competitive challenge, Proposal security/bond, among others. — Caecent No-ot Magsumbol, GMR (FREEMAN)