Tom: Make SRP adjust to market’s demands

Critics of Cebu City Rep. Tomas Osmeña accuse him of acting like he owns the 300-hectare South Road Properties (SRP), his centerpiece project as former mayor.

There’s no master plan for its development. The ideas of how it should grow “are all in his head”, said reelectionist Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

Osmeña yesterday said his approach was “demand-driven and based on what the global market wants.

“You have to adjust to where the world is going. Why would the world adjust to the Philippines, or much less, to Cebu?” he said in the 888 News Forum.

In “staying open” to changing needs of the market, Osmena said real estate development was the “hotest” opportunity which makes him worried about the legal entanglements of big investors like Filinvest in its joint venture for condominiums. He said he wants the P20 million settlement in the court case over the Rallos property paid by the city government, which lost the court case even as Mayor Rama insists on appealing it.

“The SRP will be worth more than P100 billion in a few years. You make the slightest mistake, you lose P50 million. This is Cebu City’s future. After the SRP, there is no more SRP unless Cordova town becomes part of Cebu City and you have another area to develop,” he said.

Osmeña said the SRP’s advantage is its flexibility in adjusting to market demands. It was originally planned as an export processing zone but now accomodates the lease of land for a Bigfoot studio, SM Seaside City and Filinvest.

In his “basic guidelines”, Osmeña e said he just has a “negative list” of what enterprises to reject while keeping open to global demands.

Osmena said there “should be no warehouses, no surplus equipment, nothing that creates pollution in the SRP,” he said.

“With China’s rise as a manufacturing giant, Mactan export zone is losing” and that the SRP has to b e ready if investors want to acquire land for a retirement facility, tourism haven, gambling , movie studios or whatever is demanded.

“If you want to be globally competitive, you have to adjust to what the world is doing.  You find out what is going on and adjust to it.  The advantage of having the SRP is that we have several chips to play with but as to where you place your bets, I do not know,” he said.

Like a surfer, the congressman said the city government has to “ride the wave.”

“We just have to monitor what is going on around the world…. You have to look for the waves and the first to react to it will be successful,” he said.

Osmeña said the SRP is the only reclamation project Cebu city can have and can’t afford to be bogged down by the Rallos property case. “That (Rallos case) has to be settled.  We lose (money) if we settle.  We will lose more if we do not settle,” he said.

He said Filinvest Land Inc. was unable to sell new condominium units because of the court lein on the land.

The Rallos heirs wanted the portion now occupied by the Filinvest condominium project to be paid to them in exchange for their Sambag lot which the city used as a road lot.

“If Filinvest fails, the SRP fails because no other investor will come in. Who wil buy condo units when there is a law suit against the property?” Osmeña said. With Deputy Editor Stephen Capillas