Robinsons pays P463M for Cebu City government’s NRA land

CEBU CITY, Oct. 7 (PNA) – Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena finally received from Robinsons Land Corp. the P463.5-million final payment for a north reclamation area (NRA) lot, two years after the city sold the lot to the real estate developer.

Robinsons made a down payment of P115,862,500 in April 2006.

Osmena said it took two years for the Commission on Audit (COA) to review the sale of the lot worth P579.3 million because they did not find the city’s selling price of P12,500 per square meter of the 46,345-square-meter lot to be enough.

Citing the figures of the appraisal teams of some banks, the lot known as the City Hall Block could be sold for P15,000 per square meter, COA reportedly said.

Osmena said the city lost some P50 million because of the delay as the proceeds of the sale could have earned in interest if the amount had been deposited in the bank

”This deal was consummated on June 14, 2006 yet. It’s now October 2008, so the city was deprived of money because COA sat on it for the reason that they think the mayor made money out of it. The city lost about P50 million, at the bank interest rate of five percent a year,” Osmena said.

Osmena said his greatest fear is that COA might do this again to the unsolicited proposal of Filinvest Land Inc. to purchase 10 hectares of the South Road Properties (SRP) for P2 billion and to develop in a joint venture with the city another 40 hectares of the SRP.

The delay caused by COA in the NRA lot sale is the reason the City sought COA’s prior approval of the SRP lot’s selling price, said Cebu City Administrator Francisco Fernandez.

Under the Government’s procurement laws, any disposal of property by a government entity should be subject to approval by the COA.