Forcing

The South Road Properties (SRP) is the Cebu city government’s plum possession but it will take some time before citizens reap the full benefits of income generated by profit from this reclaimed land.

The road to milk and honey from the SRP took a new twist recently when the Cebu city government demanded that investor Filinvest Land Inc. pay by Friday at least P1 billion in revenue shares from their joint venture development of the land.

Tristan Las Marias, Filinvest vice president for the Visayas and Mindanao, has cautioned that the city’s demand could scare away potential investors.

City Hall’s act appears one of desperation brought about by the deadlock between the City Council and Mayor Michael Rama, who have different ideas about how to develop the SRP.

In the meantime, social needs of Cebu City cannot wait.

Indigents are deprived of a fully functioning city hospital, flooding in low-lying areas needs costly rehabilition, road potholes need repair.

It’s a long way off to raising P1 billion in donations for a new Cebu City Medical Center, after the Oct. 15 earthquakes closed its doors.

Mayor Rama seems to have resorted to demanding a billion pesos from Filinvest as a third way of sourcing money, since it’s been an uphill battle getting funds approved by the City Hall.

How hard can he force the issue?

This could blow up in the mayor’s face. The officials have been warned.

It’s regrettable that the party in power in the City Council and the mayor have not reached a meeting of the minds on such a pivotal source of city income.

We wonder why councilors, aware of the impasse over the SRP, can’t bring out other bright ideas for the city to generate income.

What about sending resolutions to national agencies to try and realign some of the pork barrel funds that were scrapped in the 2104 budget so they are legitimately slotted for projects in Cebu City?

With the year about to end, is there any hope to see more efforts to synergize rather than to scrutinize and cut down budget propsals of the executive?

It would be a fitting Christmas gesture indeed for both camps to try harder to achieve a measure of agreement so that Cebu city residents can look forward to moving forward in 2014.

Can the mayor and councilors work together on this?