The offer of Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. to increase its annual fee to Bacolod from P800,000 to P1 million was described as outrageous and incredible yesterday by Bacolod Councilor Lyndon Caña, who said it only shows that BREDCO has all along wanted to shortchange the City, and has no respect and appreciation for it, he said.

However, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said the Bacolod and BREDCO panels have not agreed yet on the adjustment in the fees and the deadline for it is on March 4. He said what they are aiming for is an amount that will be reasonable and fair to all parties concerned.

Caña said BREDCO already has 70 percent of all reclaimed lands as its share, and was forgiven for its failure to build the City a city hall and a hospital as it promised in the 1960's. The City also waived the right to insist on a previous sharing agreement where BREDCO at first agreed to share with the City 10 percent of its income for the first 10 years, and 15 percent for the second 10 years, he said.

Caña said BREDCO has calculated to do all these primarily for its benefit and gain, and not really for the good of the City.

He said "the P1 million upward adjust for 2006 as proposed by BREDCO is much much less than P800,000 in 1995 when you factor in inflation and loss of purchasing power of the peso."

Caña also said he will wait for the final report of the renegotiation process and ask his colleagues in the minority group to prepare. He said the minority will also await and monitor the reaction of the majority who voted for the renegotiation.

Meanwhile, Caña also said that since the agenda for the meeting Saturday with the renegotiation panel was "upward adjustment with BREDCO," they did not attend because they might be misunderstood as having consented to renegotiation.*CGS

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