Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is adamant on retaining the Barangay Mayor’s Office (BMO) set up in each of the city’s barangays despite complaints from the opposition Team Rama bloc in the City Council.
“There are 45,000 beneficiaries of free medicines who receive them from the BMOs. We know that this is a new program so there are defects, but we will make changes and adjustments,” Osmeña said in yesterday’s press conference.
Councilor Raymond Garcia sponsored a resolution calling on the mayor to abolish the BMO in last Tuesday’s session.
He said the services performed by the BMOs whose personnel he appointed duplicate the functions of the barangays.
Team Rama counts more barangay officials in its fold over the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) bloc and Councilor Philip Zafra, president of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), is aligned with Team Rama.
“The medicines being delivered by the BMOs can be delivered by the barangay health workers. They have all the data of all the people in the barangay,” Garcia said.
“What happened is out of the blue, you’re just hiring new job order employees who distribute the medicines without supervision from the nurse or doctors assigned in the barangays,” the councilor said.
The barangay captains are gathering reports on the alleged abuses committed by BMO personnel, Garcia said.
Zafra said he respects the mayor’s stand. “That’s his prerogative, the council just expressed their sentiment regarding that matter. At the end of the day it will be the mayor who will make the decision,” he said.
He confirmed that the barangay captains plan to file a complaint against the BMOs at the Ombudsman. \
Zafra said the BMO is run by people who will run for barangay posts under the BO-PK banner.