Rama to veto ordinance banning him to deal SRP

Two in a row.

The Cebu City Council is getting its second veto from Mayor Michael Rama in less than a month, this time on an ordinance which prohibits him to sell lands in the South Road Properties  without authorization from the local legislature.

Rama yesterday asked city administrator Jose Marie Poblete to already draft the veto message which he will transmit to the City Council.

The mayor said the prohibition on him to talk with prospective buyers of SRP lots doesn’t make sense since he won’t profit personally from any deal.

“If no commission will reach the pocket of the mayor, why will it (disposal of SRP lots) be hard?”

The council passed during their July 19   an ordinance authored by councilor Noel Wenceslao entitled “An ordinance protecting the SRP and its stakeholders from unauthorized transactions.”

It prohibits the mayor or any City Hall official or employee from engaging in SRP related transactions.

It also requires the mayor to seek prior council authority before he  engages in negotiations relating to SRP.

Rama said the ordinance was a mere duplication of the Local Government Code.

Even without the passage of the ordinance, he said, he is aware that any disposal of SRP lots would always require prior council authority.

Despite the passage of the ordinance, Rama said, no one can stop him from talking to anybody who is interested to invest in the SRP.

“What is the use of having an elected official if he cannot execute his mandate?,” he asked.

He said it is an act of “sacrilege” to prohibit the mayor from doing his job of delivering basic services.

Raising revenues like disposing prime real estate properties  of the City Hall, like the SRP,  he said is part of his mandate.

Rama vetoed last July 13 the city ordinance that would penalize corporal punishment on children.

He branded the ordinance which would penalize even parents for spanking or insulting their children as unfair and oppressive.

The Cebu City mayor is at odds with the City Council, whose majority are loyal to Cebu City south district Rep. Tomas Osmeña and his Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK). /Doris C. Bongcac, Chief of Reporters