The president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Monday that Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio’s termination of the P39billion joint venture agreement with Mega Harbour may have arose from the realization that the contract “was not in the best interest of the city of Davao.”
“One consideration is that it will become counter-productive to a city that is doing its best to decongest traffic,” said Capt. Ronald Go, DCCCI president at the Kapehan sa Dabaw. “Imagine the impact of big trucks (circulating in the proposed Mega Harbour area) to the traffic.”
He said that the other consideration that may have led to the termination was the effect on the environment. “The project is bound to block major waterways (between Davao City and Samal Island).”
Go said the fact that the contract mandates the city to provide 500 hectares for the project with Mega Harbour coming up with 200 hectares was also not advantageous.
“But in the end, after looking at some things that were previously not considered, it showed that the project was not in best interest of the city,” said Go.
Go clarified that he was no privy to the basis behind the mayor’s decision and based his appreciation of the issue on concerns previously raised.
In a statement released by its president Engr. Victor S. Songco, Mega Harbour said the mayor’s decision to terminate the joint-venture agreement unilaterally and arbitrarily came was a shock.
Part of his statement reads: ‘We never saw it coming. All the while we thought that we were all on the same page in trying to improve the lives of the marginalized in those 10 coastal barangays – involving some 4,000 families.
In a press release, Mega Harbour said the country’s biggest and most ambitious port project that everyone awaits to see getting started ends up being quashed instead when all is set for it to rise and take shape.
It added the story of the Davao Coastline and Port Development Project – is now being reduced to a mere memory of a historic vision – as it takes only a daughter to thumb down what her father and predecessor has proudly propped up.
“We cannot stand for this” was the astute reply of Mega Harbour Port and Development Inc. that, just a little over a year ago, had signed the project’s contract with then Davao City Mayor and now Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
That Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) signed on June 21, 2016 is legally supported by the Sangguniang Panglungsod of Davao City through Resolution No. 02788-16 and Ordinance No. 0515-16. It was also signed and sworn to by then Mayor Duterte.
“Since then, we wasted no time and immediately undertook to comply with the prescribed procedures, as well as additional requirements, imposed by the City Government of Davao in order to implement the Project,” states the July 27 letter of Mega Harbour president Engr. Victor S. Songco to incumbent Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.
“We (Mega Harbour) presented the Project to the Regional Infrastructure Development Committee. We submitted additional documents. We agreed to an increase in the local government’s land share. We undertook to develop an area for about 4,000 informal settlers along coastal roads and redevelopment of coastal barangays (allocating P1.19 billion for redevelopment works, including roads and open spaces),” Songco’s letter points out.
We also secured investments (capital and technical) from various local and foreign companies, in addition to investing and expending capital of our own, in order to finance and execute the P39-billion project,” the letter adds.
Hence, Mega Harbour has begun implementing the initial phases of the project as reported in its letter updates of February 14 and March 6, 2017.
“We are deeply concerned, even seriously alarmed, by your letter dated July 19, 2017, informing us that you have ‘come to a final decision not to further proceed’ with the Davao Coastline and Port Development Project. Particularly surprising is the July 25, 2017 press statement, wherein you supposedly informed the public of your decision to ‘terminate the joint venture agreement’ pertaining to the project.
“If we are to believe the press statement released by your office, the reason for your unilateral and arbitrary decision to terminate the JVA was borne out of ‘weighing out the intentions of the project against its commercial viability, legal and social implications, and the project’s possible effects to the environment’, he said.
“This is why we wonder why the mayor has to engage in this publicity when she has not been directly involved or has allowed to be comprehensively briefed on the project not only by Mega Harbour but should have joined the briefing with the NEDA Regional Infrastructure Development Committee and the Davao City Council. This is unfair and unreasonable,” Songco’s letter adds.
The letter cited those meetings as where the committee and the council were presented the project’s masterplan to make these blighted areas “a model for urban renewal and holistic community development—a showcase to the world of uplifting the life of the Filipino people. Thus, the project is socially sound”.
