EJECTED

These vehicles-for-hire (V-hires) will have to look for another terminal after Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña ordered the V-hire terminal at Barangay Kamagayan closed because the terminal coordinator allegedly did not allow BarangayMayor’s Office vehicles from parking at the city-owned lot.

Tomas: V-hires can no longer use city-owned lot as terminal after their coordinator didn’t allow BMO vehicles to park there

Vans-for-hire (V-hires) bound for southern and western Cebu will have to look for another terminal.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña will no longer allow these V-hires to use a city-owned lot in Barangay Kamagayan as a terminal because their coordinator, Douglas Labra had been abusive.

He claimed that Labra prohibited the vehicles of the Barangay Mayor’s Office (BMO) to park in the area — an allegation that the coordinator vehemently denied.

“I mean mora na ka og nahimong hari ba. (It’s seems like you [Labra] are a king),” said Osmeña in a press conference on Monday.

At least 1,000 V-hires have been using the 400-square meter city-owned lot in Kamagayan as a terminal since last year to make it more convenient to the passengers who have to go to the towns of Santander, Oslob, Pinamungajan, Moalboal, Sibonga, and Samboan as well as Toledo City, among others.

These V-hires used to occupy the One Citilink Terminal along N. Bacalso Avenue in Cebu City.

But they relocated several times after former Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama closed the facility in July 2015 due to tax delinquency and the lack of necessary permits from the city government.

The V-hire operators earlier used a space at the Compania Maritima, an abandoned building across from the Cebu City Hall before they were moved to SM Seaside City Cebu in 2016.

But mounting complaints due to its distance from the riding public prompted Osmeña to transfer it to a city-owned lot in Barangay Kamagayan in 2017.

The mayor designated Labra as coordinator to the drivers and operators.

In return for the use of the property, the operator would give about P100 per day to the city government, which usually reached a total of about P400,000 per month.

Osmeña claimed the collection was only  “voluntary.”

“Believe it or not, that’s voluntary. So I told the treasurer: accept it. We get P400,000 a month. It helps the people, fine. And the city makes money, fine. It was alright until they (Labra) started pushing around. That’s fatal,” Osmeña said.

But Labra denied that he did not allow BMO vehicles to park at the V-hire terminal.

“I think the mayor was misinformed,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Two weeks ago, Labra said one of the legal counsels of Osmeña parked in a space intended for the BMO.

A staff of the BMO subsequently placed a “no parking” sign in the area to prevent other vehicles from using the space.

Labra said he, however, removed the signage when a guest from a nearby university requested if she could park her vehicle in the space intended for the BMO.

“In fact, it was the BMO who didn’t want any vehicle to park in their space. Why would I prevent anyone from parking their cars there?,” he said.

Labra said he was willing to undergo an investigation to prove that he didn’t disallow the BMO to park at the V-hire terminal.

But apparently, the mayor had made up his mind.

Osmeña said he had no plans of providing an alternative place that could accommodate the V-hires.

“That’s their problem. I’m going to dismantle the hierarchy there. It’s my priority that no one should behave as if you own the lot notwithstanding the use of government funds. You must be a fool,” he said.

But V-hire drivers were worried about the decision of the mayor as their livelihood hanged on a balance.

“Kaming mga driver ang makaluluoy kay wala mi lain masaligan nga kita. Ang pagsirado nini maka affect gyud sa among panginabuhi. (We drivers will suffer the consequences of the order especially that we don’t have other means of livelihood. Closing the terminal will really affect us),” said a 48-year-old driver who asked not to disclose his name.

He said his work as a V-hire driver allowed him to support his wife and five children.

But he said he might not be able to do so if the

V-hires would move out of Kamagayan without a clear relocation site.