Use the former Magsaysay Park, located across the city hall, as the site for a new city government complex.

This was the advice of Lyceum-Northwestern University president Gonzalo Duque to the city council on Tuesday, in the wake of the legal problems that now hound the construction of the a tourism-commercial complex by MetroState Realty Corporation.

Duque believes that his proposal is a win-win situation that will satisfy both the city government and MetroState, after Mayor Al Fernandez ordered the latter to stop its construction activities on the site.

“If you will consider this, may be all the parties will be happy,” said Duque, newly elected president of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU).

Stressing he is avoiding another eyesore in the city, Duque volunteered himself to act the mediator in the conflict between the city hall and MetroState.

He said city officials and MetroState can possibly agree on reimbursement of expenses for a take-over arrangement.

Or it may grant the contract to MetroState to build the new city hall in the area as a kind of goodwill without any reimbursement, he said.

To justify the urgency of building a new city hall, he said “As of now Dagupan is a faceless city. Look at your present city hall, your legislative hall. Everybody is cramped in just one small room.”

RESERVATIONS

Reacting to Duque’s suggestion, City Legal Officer George Mejia, however, said the proposal may be far-fetched because of pending court cases.

A case was already filed against City Engineer Virginia Rosario by MetroState for stopping the construction of the project for lack of a building permit.

Another case was filed by a certain Edward Santos before the Ombudsman against former Mayor Benjamin Lim, former City Administrator Rafael Baraan, four middle-level officials of the city government and two officials of MetroState for an alleged anomalous deal.

But Mejia said, he will endorse Duque’s proposal to the city council once the legal issues are resolved.

This was echoed by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez who said the city council should not dip its finger on the issue as it may preempt the decisions of the court.

Duque called on the parties to reconcile, noting that cases normally last for 10 to 15 days while construction materials quickly suffer from corrosion.

The construction of the MetroSate project, started during the Lim administration, was stopped few days after the new city administration of Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. took over for failing to secure a building permit.–LM

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