The Cebu Provincial Government has made formal its opposition to a Cebu City ordinance that amended the 1996 zoning ordinance mandating that government properties along the Banilad-Talamban corridor should only be for public use.
The province owns a property in the corridor that it wants to develop into a P1.2-billion commercial complex with a private developer.
In 2009, at the height of the conflict between the Cebu City mayor now Rep. Tomas Osmena (south district) and Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, the council amended the zoning ordinance.
The amendment calls for all lots acquired through the Friar Lands Act to be devoted to the purpose for which they were acquired.
"It curtails the property rights of landowners," read the provincial government's position paper, a statement shared by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.
The province also invoked Proclamation 394 of March 15, 1957, where the late president Ramon Magsaysay revoked Executive Order 20 signed by then governor-general Francis Burton Harrison that reserved the Banilad friar lands estate for public use.
"As it is well within the rights of the Cebu Provincial Government to maximize the use of its land, the curtailment obviously forced upon this ordinance (amendment of the 1996 Zoning Ordinance) is tantamount to taking without just compensation," the position paper read.
It also said hindering development in the Ban-Tal area is not the solution to the traffic problem.
It called the prohibition an oppressive exercise of police powers.
"Easing the traffic problems in the Ban-Tal area can be better solved by the widening of roads or finding other routs," it also stated.
Osmena said these solutions entail a lot of money because of the expropriation of prime property.
Around P50 million was spent to expropriate lots covered by the road widening during the construction of the Banilad flyover alone, he said.
Concluding the position paper is the call to abandon the subject ordinance.
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