The office of Cebu City former councilor Mary Anne delos Santos was also stripped bare after she stepped down from office. | Gerard Francisco
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Former Cebu City Councilor Mary Anne delos Santos, who ran for vice mayor of the city alongside former Mayor Tomas Osmeña in the May 2019 elections, followed the former mayor’s footsteps and stripped bare her office before leaving the City Hall as well.
Members of the staff of Councilor Prisca Niña Mabatid, who was going to take over Delos Santos’ office in the second floor of the Legislative building, were shocked that everything inside the office were already taken away including wall partitions.
They were even surprised that the electrical wirings were also cut.
CDN Digital tried to reach Delos Santos, but the former councilor did not respond.
Read more: Osmeña strips off his office of furnishings as he ends his term
This incident was similar to Osmeña’s “destruction” of the Mayor’s Office on June 28 taking even the tiles of the toilet of the office where he stayed in as Mayor during his term in the past 3 years.
Osmeña in previous statements said that when he sought for a budget to renovate the Mayor’s Office in 2016, he was denied by the City Council, which was then dominated by Partido Barug, and so he had to shell out P2 million from his own pocket to renovate the office.
He said that he was only restoring the Mayor’s Office the way it was way back in 2001.
Read more: Labella tells bizmen: Office of the Mayor in shambles
Mayor Edgardo Labella was also surprised to find out that Delos Santos did a similar act on her office.
The new mayor said that these actions reflected the kind of governance that Osmeña and Delos Santos had upheld.
He said that that the scene of “ruins” in the mayor’s office maybe “a microcosm of the way someone had left an entire city in shambles.”
Labella said that he already instructed the City Legal Office to study the charges that may be filed in the against Osmeña and Delos Santos for destroying public property.
As for Mabatid, her staff told CDN Digital that the new councilor would be renovating the office for at least one month.
They have requested basic furniture such as chairs and tables, aircondition units, and electrical wirings from the City Hall administrator for the office.
Mabatid’s camp also said that the councilor might be temporarily staying in the office of former Councilor Joel Garganera, which is in the second floor of the Legislative Building, so she could continue to serve the public while the office renovation would continue. /dbs