ACTING Mayor Edgar Labella returned to the City Council the ordinance that would grant P5,000 aid to indigent single parents.
He said he could not affix his signature on the ordinance which was approved last May 14, in his capacity as acting mayor. Last week, he took on the position when Mayor Michael Rama left for the US. The mayor came home last weekend, but left again yesterday for Singapore and is expected to return on June 2.
He wrote council Secretary Cynthia Kahulugan on May 20 to put on hold the transmission of any approved legislation to his office because he could not sign these anyway.
Normally an ordinance would have to be acted upon by the mayor within 10 days from receipt of a copy, said Labella. Inaction during the prescribed period would mean automatic approval of the measure.
Rama had said in a previous interview that he will review the solo parents ordinance once he gets an official copy.
No gas for City Hall ambulances
CEBU City Councilor Dave Tumulak yesterday confronted Government Services Office (GSO) head Dionisio Gualiza on the latter’s alleged refusal to give gasoline allocation to two City Hall ambulances.
The city has seven ambulances placed under its command center but only four are functional.
He said gasoline allocation is crucial because city-owned ambulances respond to at least 15 emergency calls a day.
“Crucial kaayo nga mag dagan ang atong mga ambulances kay life and death situation ang respondihan ana nila,” he said. (It’s crucial to keep the ambulance running because they respond to life and death situations.)
Tumulak cited an instance on Friday when paramedics from barangay Basak ran on foot to the Basak Elementary School for an emergency. It took several minutes before an ambulance from barangay Inayawan was available to transport the wounded victim to the hospital.
He also warned Gualiza that he will have to answer if the city fails to respond to emergency situations.
He told reporters that Gualiza has not been giving fuel allocation to two of the city’s ambulances since last week. Each ambulance gets 200 to 300 liters of fuel allocation each month.
Gualiza when reminded by Tumulak about his request for fuel allocation replied:
“I-check lang nako,” was Gualiza’s reply. (I’ll have it checked.)