Rama warned: Threatening Filinvest not a wise move

WHILE Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s insistence to collect the city’s share of the joint venture deal with Filinvest is “understandable,” he should exercise prudence by not threatening legal action on the developer.

“That will scare off other investors. Besides, they (Filinvest) are not a fly-by-night corporation. They won’t risk their reputation as one of the country’s biggest developers,” Councilor Margot Osmeña said.

In a separate press conference, Rama said he should be allowed to collect money from the city’s properties aside from their shares from Filinvest.

“We have someone to collect from. The SRP, block 27, Waterfront, that’s money,” he said.

Filinvest earlier said they have been remitting City Hall’s profit share and was even paying up in advance.

Tristan Las Marias, vice president for the Visayas and Mindanao of Filinvest Land Inc. said they remitted P160 million to the city.

The City Legal Office sent a demand letter to Filinvest through its Vice Chairman Andrew Gotianun Jr. last Sept. 13.

Filinvest officials said they are still awaiting for the city’s reply to their proposals on how they can accommodate the city’s request for advance settlement of the minimum guarantee payment which is a little over P1 billion.

“We have no more comment on this matter, for now. But we look forward to continue our dialogue with the city to see how we can address the City’s financial needs at this time,” said Filinvest Visayas area manager Lydwena Eco in an email sent to Cebu Daily News.

“We need money, we admitted that already. And one of the main sources of revenues for the city, as reported by the city treasurer, is their collectible from Filinvest. So I can understand how eager we are to collect that,” Osmeña said.

For the last two months of 2013, the city government still has a little over P1 billion financial obligations that need to be settled.

These include salaries and wages worth P180 million, yearend bonuses worth P47 million, various honoraria, operating expenses and the remaining P4,000 cash assistance for senior citizens amounting to P240 million.

“I suppose it’s just the interpretation of the terms and conditions. Filinvest has assured that they’ve been paying quarterly and that they can back it up with official receipts and receiving copies,” Osmeña added.

But Rama said there should be no reason for investors to be scared.

“Basta tarong ang investors mo-tuman, ngano mahadlok man? (As long as investors follow their obligations, why should they be scared?)” he said.

Asked if he’s imposing a timeframe for FLI, Rama said the timeframe was given a long time ago and the city have been very patient. Correspondent Jose Santino S. Bunachita