GARCIA
CEBU City Councilor Alvin Raymond Garcia said that Mayor Tomas Osmeña blatantly violated an ordinance which he himself signed and approved in the year 2003.
Garcia said the mayor disobeyed several provisions of City Ordinance (CO) 1958 or the Ordinance Regulating the Establishment and Operation of Terminals for Public Utility and V-hires when he allowed the operation of the terminal in Junquera Street, Barangay Kamagayan, last September 2016.
“You have a mayor who says he is anti-corruption, anti-graft. (He is) going after people who are not following the law like SM, BDO and other businesses, and he himself now is not following the law,” said Garcia.
Last March 22, Garcia filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against Osmeña and City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo for corrupt practices for the alleged illegal operation of the V-hire terminal in Barangay Kamagayan. Also on the complaint, he cited that Osmeña and Camarillo violated several provisions of Republic Act (RA) 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
“Aside from that, CO 1958, in 2003 was signed into law by Mayor Osmeña himself and now he is violating it. I am very idealistic. I am the chairman of committee on laws, ordinances and then I will not question this?” he said.
For his part, Osmeña pointed out that there was no accredited terminal in the city. He said there was one in CitiLink, but former mayor Michael Rama transferred it to SM.
“How come they did not file a case against Rama and Lucelle Mercado? Mercado, the city administrator, took over the function of the accreditation and put the terminal in SM. Then they put them in Compania Maritima. There is no accreditation. As a matter of fact, there was a restraining order in transferring it to CitiLink, and Rama ignored it,” said Osmeña.
He said he only tested the idea of putting the V-hires in CitiCenter Commercial Complex. The city is on the process of validating it, he said.
Osmeña said he plans to institutionalize the scheme to make life easier for the people, and that the city should help small businessmen.