NEWS BRIEFS

PAYMENT FOR SRP LOAN, NOT FOR RALLOSES

WHILE Cebu City Hall’s executive department proposed P610 million to pay for amortization and interest of its 20-year loan with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), not a centavo will be allocated to pay for the Rallos heirs.

Jade Ponce, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s legal advisor, said about P383 million will be paid as principal to the city’s loan for the South Road Properties (SRP) worth P1.85 billion by year end.

Another P227 million will be paid for the interest of city’s loan amounting to P1.9 billion.

Ponce said Rama didn’t include an appropriation in his draft of the 2013 budget for the settlement of the P133 million claim by the Rallos heirs.

Ponce said the Rama administration is adamant on its stand that the Rallos lot located in barangay Sambag 1 was donated to the city government.

He said they are now drafting a complaint for the violation of the Anti-Graft Law against the Bando Osmena Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) bloc of the City Council for passing a resolution asking Rama to already pay the Ralloses.

Ponce said passage of the resolution was tantamount to “influencing and persuading/forcing another public officer (Rama) to do an act that is violative of the law.”

“It may be true that the resolution was just an opinion of the council and no damage has been done, but the anti-graft law does not mention that damage should have been done to merit a violation of said law,” Ponce said.

He said the mayor’s legal team is now drafting their complaint against the BO-PK bloc before the Ombudsman-Visayas. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac

RAMA WANTS TO COMPLETE BRT PLAN

DESPITE his political difference with Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south

district, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he’s determined to pursue completion of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in the city.

“I believe in the BRT and I have been supporting it since I became a councilor in 1992,” he said. Rama said he’s looking for someone to head the BRT Technical Working Group (TWG).

Former councilor Nestor Archival resigned from the TWG last Oct. 10 shortly after he filed his candidacy as a north district candidate for Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK).

Archival headed the group since Rama became mayor in 2010.

The TWG is now conducting consultations with transport agencies and passenger jeepney drivers on the shortening and eventual abolition of some jeepney routes.

The affected routes cover the 16 kilometer route proposed for the BRT system from barangay Bulacao in the south to Talamban in the north district.

Until a replacement is named, Rama said Rafael Yap of the Cebu City Integrated Traffic Operations Management (Citom) will lead TWG discussions.

Yap said the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is collating data to determine how many routes and drivers will be affected by the BRT project.

He said that said data will be made part of the social management plan which the BRT group will submit to the national government for inclusion in the documents to be submitted to the World Bank during the later part of the year.

“They (World Bank) needs to know how the impact of the BRT system will be mitigated,” said Yap. Citom and LTFRB initially identified 22 of the 90 jeeney routes in the city to be affected by the BRT project. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac