Cebu south district Rep. Tomas Osmeña wants to mount a forum where real estate experts and bankers can give an impartial view on whether the South Road Properties deal was lucrative or not.
Land at the South Road Properties (SRP) was appraised by three private firms at P3,800 to as much as P10,000 per square meter. But Osmeña said he managed to sell parcels of the SRP to Filinvest Land, Inc. and SM at a much higher value of P15,000.00 in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Osmeña said if Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia is bragging about the joint venture agreement which she entered into with Filinvest for the use of the old city jail lot in barangay Lahug, he could easily claim that the city has a “much better deal” with Filinvest.
“Alkansi ba ang syudad ani o dili?” (Did the city gain on the SRP deal or not?), Osmeña asked. He said he plans to call a forum with real estate experts and bankers to explain the city’s dealings on the SRP to disprove what he described as “the character assassination” earlier started by the Garcias against him.
Rep. Pablo John Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district earlier accused Osmeña of corruption for entering into a joint venture agreement with Filinvest that he claimed “was grossly disadvantageous to the city government.”
“(By organizing a forum) I just wanted to show the people of Cebu City that I did not betray them. Instead I did a very good job (with the SRP). But I want the people to decide because it will be self serving if I be the one to say this,” he said.
Osmeña said that when he was still mayor, he engaged the services of three appraisal firms – Asian Appraisal, Vitale Valuation and Cuervo Apparaisers Inc., to appraise properties at the SRP.
The three firms came up with appraised values ranging from at least P3,800 per sq. meter for interior lots to as much P10, 000 per sq. meter for prime lots which included Pond F.
Filinvest paid P15, 000 per sq. meter for pond F of the SRP.
“I know Filinvest also did their appraisal and I did my salesmanship (that is why I managed to convince them to pay an even bigger amount for pond F),” said Osmeña.
Osmeña said he did not show anyone, not even allies in Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) of the SRP’s appraisal report. He said that he wanted to keep the reports to himself while he negotiated with Filinvest and SM Prime Holdings.
Now that sale to both firms have been made, Osmeña said, he was already prepared to go public with the lot appraisal documents.
Aside from getting more than what the properties sold to Filinvest actually cost, the city government is also getting a 10 percent share of the gross income derived from use of the built-up space on properties covered by the joint venture.
Capitol on the other hand is only getting a share of four percent per year from the rent of spaces at the Business Process Outsourcing complex which would soon be built at the old city jail lot. /Doris C. Bongcac, Chief of Reporters