FLYOVERS . The stalled P1 billion Ciudad development project.
Now Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district has another bone to pick with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.
Mayor Rama said over the weekend that he wanted the Osmeña Shrine in barangay Kalunasan expanded into a park.
Rama earmarked P10 million for the shrine in his proposed 2012 budget and said he wanted the park to “connect to the (nearby) Cebu city zoo.”
“It’s a shame that Cebu City being a highly urbanized city has no open space parks. We have more malls than parks,” the mayor said.
The mayor’s plan was opposed by Osmeña, who remained steadfast in supporting the construction of a multi-faith cemetery in place of the 4.2 hectare Osmeña shrine despite opposition from Kalunasan residents.
“We have already committed the shrine to the Protestant group since the city has no place to bury their dead. It is going to be a memorial park and it was approved by Mayor Rama himself when he was the head of the council as the vice mayor,” Osmeña said.
Rama declined to comment on the stance of Osmeña, his predecessor.
“I don’t want to talk about it now,” he replied.
He said he would rather focus on renovating and expanding the Osmeña shrine. The mayor said Cebu City residents also needed a park “to make life beautiful especially for the children.”
“We have to bring people to understand that we are doing this for the environment. It’s not just beautification,” Rama said.
The lot was donated by the province to the city in 1965 on condition that it remains a park.
“Osmeña Shrine should be used as it should be because people mistake it as belonging to the province and not the city,” he said.
But Osmeña said building a cemetery in the shrine area doesn’t violate the conditions set by the province since a memorial park is still a park.
The proposed conversion of the Osmeña shrine into a multi-faith cemetery was opposed by Kalunasan residents who feared that their water supply may be contaminated.
They also said their children who go to schools near the shrine may not want to attend classes if the cemetery is built there.
’Not the city government’
But Osmeña proposed that a columbary or a vault with niches where urns containing the ashes of the dead be set up instead.
He said he remains confident that the Cebu City Council won’t approve Rama’s plan to expand the shrine into an open park.
“He will need the council’s approval for that and I don’t think the council will support that but let the council answer that. Rama is not the city government,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña, who had been critical of Rama’s closeness with his political rival Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, chided the mayor for targeting an P11 billion budget despite a P1 billion budget deficit.
“Rama’s doing something I can teach any high school student to do and that is to promise the sun, the moon the stars, promise you this and that…What’s he gonna do? He will sell Fuente Osmeña to the province and probably Abellana Sports Center is on the list,” he said.
Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young, Osmeña’s political ally, echoed the congressman’s line, saying Rama should ‘buckle down’ and stop announcing and promising things which he could not support.
“Did Rama forget that the lot was donated to the Evangelical Christian Coalition of Cebu Inc. (ECCCI)?…Why would you have to spend on a lot that has already been donated? Is he going to make another Plaza Subgo?,” Young said.
The vice mayor said Rama’s shrine proposal would be tackled by the City Council in their off-site session in barangay Guba this Wednesday.
Rama proposed three more park projects in his 2012 budget.
These include the Pasil park worth P25 million, Cogon Ramos park at P20 million and the senior citizens park at P10 million.
The mayor said he wanted the senior citizens park built in a lot located across the City Hall annex building.
Having several parks in the city is part of having a “sustainable community” and is also beneficial to the environment, Rama said. /Doris C. Bongcac and Edison delos Angeles