‘SRP body plan, sign of Rama’s incompetence’

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s plan to create a special body to run the South Road Properties (SRP) is an indication of his lack of management skills.

Rep. Tomas Osmeña (Cebu City south district) statement came after Rama’s plan to create a special body for the SRP.

Osmeña said he believed Rama had no capability to create his special body.

“It’s an admission of his incompetence.  While City Hall now has 5, 000 employees, 20 department heads and 40 consultants, what is a special body for?” Osmeña asked.

The former Cebu City mayor also corrected his successor, Rama, on his claims on the lack of a master plan for the SRP.

Osmeña said having a master plan was a requirement in the city’s loan application for the implementation of the South Reclamation Project (SRP), which was the previous name of the South Road Properties.

“You cannot get billions from the Japanese government without a master plan.  It has undergone a dozen boards by NEDA (National Economic Development Authority)  including four international appraisal missions by the Japanese government,” he said.

Rama earlier said he wanted to make a report of how much the city earned from the sales of the SRP lot and how much the city paid for its loan with the Japanese government.

He said he planned of coming up with an SRP master plan and creating a special body that would manage the SRP.

He said having a special body run the SRP would prevent it from being held hostage especially in the political differences of city officials.

“If you use that argument, why don’t we just privatize City Hall because the mayor is so incompetent?  To me it is better to just change the mayor or we will suffer like when the port of Long Beach, California, was separated from the city of Long Beach with the creation of a separate body,” said Osmeña.

Osmeña added that Rama talks like a “loose cannon” but never takes responsibility for lapses of his administration.

Rama, he said, earlier blamed Bimbo Fernandez and Margie Mattheu for lapses in the implementation of urban poor programs.

He also blamed the media for misquoting him.

Osmeña said that Rama also promised to close the Inayawan landfill in three months but failed to do so.

“Mike Rama has not brought a single investor in his 19 years as a city official except for Mariquita Salimbangon maybe,” said Osmeña.