CH to form legal team to help fire marshal against charges

The Cebu City government will form a legal team to assist city fire chief Esmael Codilla against the criminal and administrative charges the Bureau of Fire Protection has recommended to be filed against him for his alleged failure to account more than P400,000 in debts to a gasoline station.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday said the city cannot afford to lose Codilla because the fire chief has been the best the city has ever had.

“It’s plain and simple. They would want to assign somebody else here. Codilla’s so far the best I’ve ever had,” Osmeña said. 

Osmeña said he would not even hesitate to kick out the BFP regional office from the city-owned lot it is presently occupying if only to warn BFP not to mess up with the city.

“We will kick out their regional office from our property. We will cut off their water, we will cut off their electricity,” Osmeña said.

Aside from the city’s legal department, Osmeña said he would ask Councilors Gerardo Carillo, Hilario Davide III, and Joey Daluz – who are lawyers – to coordinate with the legal department in defending Codilla.

The BFP recommended the filing of charges against Codilla following a fact-finding inquiry into a complaint filed by BFP-7 director Eleuterio Iturriaga, who claimed that the city’s fire station owed a gas station P433,560.95 in bills.

The amount reportedly represented fuel consumption from 2005 to February 2007 that Codilla reportedly requested the regional office to pay.

Codilla may opt for a formal investigation into the administrative case.

The fact-finding team claimed there were alleged discrepancies in Codilla’s reports, saying there were numerous instances of gasoline withdrawals even if there were no fires.

Codilla also allegedly failed to fully explain these discrepancies and that results of a survey among BFP units in Cebu City did not corroborate the documents that Codilla had submitted.

Codilla admitted that there were discrepancies but pointed out that a thorough examination of record and logbooks would reconcile with the discrepancies.

For example, the committee said there were plenty of withdrawals in February though there were no fires, but Codilla explained that the big fire that hit Lincoln Street kept rekindling and lasted more than a week.  — Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM