City donates vehicles mostly to BOPK allies

CEBU, Philippines — Despite calls for “equitable distribution” of vehicles to all barangays, the Cebu City Council yesterday approved the donation of 25 vehicles to the barangays that are mostly affiliated with the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan.

Councilor Sisinio Andales authored the 25 resolutions authorizing Mayor Tomas Osmeña to enter into and sign the Deed of Donation and Acceptance with the barangay captains of Basak Pardo, Calamba, Guadalupe, Buhisan, Buot, Bulacao, Babag, Bonbon, Cogon Ramos, Carreta, Capitol Site, Camputhaw, Busay, Binaliw, Banilad, Apas, Agsungot, Day-as, Guba, Basak San Nicolas, Hipodromo, Lusaran, Kasambagan, Kalubihan, and Lahug.

“These are the initial deed of donation that the city government will donate to the barangays. There will be second batch,” Andales told his colleagues in the City Council when asked for the criteria of the release and distribution of the city-owned vehicles.

Councilor Raymond Garcia pointed out that of the 25 barangays only Basak San Nicolas is affiliated with them in the opposition.

Garcia said one barangay is given one to four units of vehicles, adding that the city government should be “more equitable” in distributing its resources to the barangays.

Saying they are “surprised,” City Councilors Jose Daluz III and Pastor Alcover, Jr. questioned the reason behind the donation considering that this is the direction charted by the incoming administration.

Alcover said it has been publicly announced by mayor-elect Edgardo Labella that he intends to push through with the donation of city-owned vehicles to the barangays so that these will not be affected by any change of administration.

“Para nako ba, courtesy lang unta sa atong mga konsehales. Why not give courtesy for the next council nga ila naman nuon ning gi hi-jack from you. The truth is ikaw man ang nag-una, ila lang gi-hijack that is why na surprise ko,” Alcover said.

Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña said the members of the council should not talk of hijacking because that means someone’s stealing somebody’s ideas.

Margot said there should be no problem as to who did it first as long as the effect is for the benefit of the intended beneficiaries. She stressed that no person has the monopoly of good intentions.

“I’m privy also to some of the talks that the mayor and understandably so, this has been in his thoughts even in the past but maybe because of the course of events that many things happening, it just came now,” she said.

Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera said the recipients of these vehicles should be told about the consequence of the donation which means that the barangays will be the one to shoulder for the maintenance and the fuel allocation of these vehicles.

She said the city government should also consider the capability of these barangays to maintain the vehicles to serve its purpose.

Pesquera said the barangay councils should also issue their corresponding resolutions authorizing their barangay captains or anyone to accept the donation considering that there is question as to who is functioning as the barangay captain of Mambaling.

Councilor David Tumulak, for his part, said the donation would be an advantage to the city government because the allocation for the maintenance and fuel of these vehicles could be used for other projects and programs of the city. — FPL (FREEMAN)