The recovery of province-owned lots in Cebu City and two multi-million-peso enterprises in water supply and real estate are among the “challenges” left for incoming Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III.
“I leave these pending concerns to the sound discretion and judgment of Governor-elect Junjun Davide to make a decision on,” said outgoing Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia in her final speech during turnover rites at the Capitol social hall on Friday.
According to Garcia, the Province of Cebu stands to earn “billions of pesos in revenue” if it handles well the Carmen Bulk Water consortium, which aims to supply 35 million liters of water to Metro Cebu from the Luyang River, and a joint venture with Filinvest, which is bulding a BPO complex in the former Cebu city jail lot in Lahug.
In her turnover speech, , Garcia described in detail her programs during her nine-year term.
Whether Davide, a Liberal Party lawyer who anchored his election campaign on a call for honest governance and had criticized Garcia’s administration for malversing funds in the Balili land purchase, will pursue these priorities remains to be seen.
Garcia said the Province invested P110 million for a 49 percent share in a consortium with Manila Water, Maynilad , and the Gasiano group to develop bulk water supply tapped from Carmen town.
The consortium plans to sell the water to distributors in Metro Cebu.
In real estate, Garcia cited the province’s build-transfer-operate agreement with Filinvest which plans to build a P5 billion complex of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) towers in a 1.2 hecatre lot formerly occupied by the Cebu city jail.
Under the agreement, the province will earn from land rental and a share of gross revenues in the operation of the BPO complex, which will later become part of the assets of the province.
“These are the two major big-ticket items that will earn billions for the province in the years to come,” said Garcia.
The stalled Ciudad commercial project in Banilad also remains pending, she said, and the need to recover “prime commercial property” in various locations in Cebu City.
This includes 80.7 hectares comprising Camp Lapu-Lapu.
“A Memorandum of Agrement has already been signed. We need to work with the Armed Forced of the Philippines to complete all the necessary requirements for the transfer of these lots back to the province,” she said.
The land was donated in 1959 by then Cebu Gov. Jose Briones on condition that it would be used solely for military purposes but over the years, only 22.4 hectares were actually used by the armed forces.
The new Capitol administration will also have to wrap up the Oridnance 93-1 lot issue, affecting 5,000 urban settlers in the city.
Agreements remain to be completed with 13 more homeowners associations for settlers to pay for the lots they occupy under special terms with Pag-ibig through the Community Mortgage Program.
An earlier batch of 19 Memorandums of Agreement were already signed.
Garcia said the Province stands to collect P1.5 billion from Pag-ibig and CMP, which will help settlers pay by installment for the land, some for only P500 to P1,000 a month in amortization.
In the CPSTA program, the province has recovered 17.1 hectares of prime land unused by beneficiaries.
“We leave it to the incoming administraiton what do do with prime commercial property recovered by the Province,” said Garcia.
In Tunghaan, Minglanilla town, where a Sugbo Gawad Kalinga housing project has 96 units, Phase 2 and 3 remains for the Province to develop, which Garcia said she had hoped to use for provincial employees.
A proposed waste-to-energy project has a winning bidder already declared by the Capitol.
Garcia said she had wanted the facility placed in the Balili property in Naga, and that the Province stood to earn P1.4 billion in revenue over the next 25 years as rental fees at P30 per square meter or P613 million , and P850 million in tipping fees and a percentage of energy sold.
However, the 2008 purchase of the Balili property is the subject of a criminal case in the Sandigangayan with Garcia and several Capitol officials and two landowners indicted for graft and malversation of funds.
Garcia also mentioned a joint venture with Ma. Luisa Estate Park, where the province has a 40 percent share or 11,246 square meters of land valued at P119 million.
The property will be turned over to the new Capitol administration to decide what to do with it.
Garcia also expressed hope that Governor Davide would continue the construction of an airport in San Francisco, Camotes Island and Bantayan Island, where “it it most needed” for tourism and emergengency response in calamities.
For her program of government, Garcia said the province spent P6.4 billion over the past nine years to ensure that “Cebu would be the premier province.”
She said most of it or P5.5 billion went to inrastructure projects like roads, bridges, drainage, school buildings, public restrooms, birthing centers, street lighting, the Cebu International Convention Center, the completion of the Cebu Cultural Center and new buildings for the Cebu provincial police headquarters, the National Bureau of Investigation, Philipinde Drug Enforcement Agency, and the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
“My 12.2-point agenda was meant to deliver the services the people need, in order to meet the expectations of the Cebuano people and to push growth at a phenomenal level,” she explained.
In health services, Garcia said the province spent P268 million to build three 100-bed provincial hospitals, birthing centers and extend accident insurance coverage to all barangay workers. REPORTER ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL