CEBU CITY, Philippines – Another donated property will already be returned to the possession of the Cebu Provincial government.Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said she is scheduled to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap on November 14 for the recovery of the DA compound lot located along M. Velez Street. The Department of Agriculture (DA) compound lot is among the properties that were donated to national government offices and other local government units during the previous administrations. The property is among the Garcia administration wanted to regain possession of. “According to Secretary (Arthur) Yap, DA will not stand in the way of the provincial government in its efforts to recover its properties to be used for other endeavors that are intended to raise revenues for the province,” Garcia told reporters last week. Garcia said she hopes that others who continue to resist the province’s lot recovery efforts will “take the cue from Secretary Arthur Yap.” The recovery of the DA property will further increase the provincial government’s assets, she said. A financial report by the Commission on Audit (COA) named Cebu as the richest province in the country in 2007 with at least P16 billion in assets. Garcia said their 2007 assets already included the at least 80 hectares Armed Forces Central Command (Centcom) compound in Barangay (village) Apas. The province assets are expected to further increase this year with the recovery of the at least 22 hectare Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) lot located in Barangay Kalunasan, the acquisition of the 25 hectare Balili property in Naga City, Cebu and the recovery of the DA compound. Early this year, the governor entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with BSP president Jejomar Binay for the recovery of the BSP lot.
A notice to vacate was also sent to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, asking the city government to remove the city zoo from a portion of the province lot in Kalunasan. A civil complaint was filed in court, asking Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to vacate the province-owned lot along Archbishop Reyes Avenue which is now occupied by the Tesda regional office. Garcia still could not determine the total lot area of the DA compound. But she said parcels of this property were under a usufruct agreement with the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, the Register of Deeds and the Court of Appeals. The DA will relocate their regional office to the DA's own property in Mandaue City. “In our 2008 financial performance report, I already see an increase in our total assets because of the recovery of the BSP and DA properties, the acquisition of the Balili resort and the recovery of other small pieces of land that we continue to recover,” she said. Garcia said she would pursue her administration’s policy to recover other donated lots. /Reporter Doris C. Bongcac | 
