Opponents seek province’s help

Homeowners  associations and barangay Lahug officials yesterday sought the help  of Cebu province in opposing the conversion of  Osmeña Shrine in Cebu City  into a cemetery.

“We are here because we want to ask her help and support,” said Lahug barangay councilor Mary Ann delos Santos  after meeting with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia in her office.

Delos Santos said she  hopes the governor will join  barangay Lahug, the Beverly Hills Homeowners Association, Beverly Glen and the Taoist Temple in their cause.

“Before they will join this, they have to listen to the sentiments of the affected constituents of Lahug as well as barangay Kalunasan,”  Delos Santos said.

In a separate interview, Governor Garcia said that she wanted to listen and see  if there is strong opposition to the use of the lot as a cemetery.

“We will decide what course to take after having studied our options very carefully and after we have listened to the representations from several associations vehemently opposed to this project,” she said.

“We are taking a wait-and-see attitude. We are open to listening to public opinion especially the affected public.”

The group  plans to return to the Capitol  on Sept. 2.

Delos Santos said that they will bring representatives of other homeowners associations.

Last June, residents in the mountain barangay of  Kalunasan and other parties  registered their objection to a 2010 Cebu City Council decision  to donate 4.2 hectares of the shrine for use as a private cemetery.

In a public hearing, Edmundo Vinzon, president of the Villa Remedious Homeowners Association, said a burial ground poses health and environment risks like water contamination, sanitation issues and the loss of trees.

Legal issues were also raised about the lot’s classification as “residential rural.”

The furor was revived in the City Council hearing over the donation of a big chunk of the seven-hectare shrine, a wooded area set aside decades ago to honor the memory of the late President Sergio Osmeña Sr.

The “midnight” donation took place when then mayor Tomas Osmeña signed an agreement with the Evangelical Christian Coalition of Cebu Inc. (ECCCI) on May 4, 2010, a few days before the May local elections, to allow the land’s use for a “multifaith cemetery.”

The City Council earlier authorized him to donate 42,687 square meters to the Christian organization in their April 13 session.

These decisions are now being revisited.

At that time, Delos Santos said the donation should be rescinded.

Aside from questions about the legality of donating government land to a religious group, she said the site really falls in the boundaries of barangay Lahug, whose leaders were never consulted.

Lawyer Lito Astillero, a Capitol consultant, said a cemetery in the Osmeña Shrine may also violate provisions of the Capitol’s donation of the property decades ago to Cebu City. /Carmel Loise Matus, Correspondent