Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella | PIO Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella has ordered the Cebu City Legal Office (CLO) to investigate the alleged indiscriminate distribution of relief goods by the Mayor’s Information and Liaison Office (MILO).
This office was established by Labella on July 2019 to replace the Barangay Mayor’s Office (BMO) of former mayor, Tomas Osmeña.
Read more: Barangay vs MILO, who holds the turf in the barangays?
Despite establishing the office himself, Mayor Labella said he would not tolerate any unlawful activities made by the personnel of the 80 MILOs in the city’s barangays.
“According to the drafted ordinance by Councilor Raymond Garcia, the relief goods should be done by a barangay official. Being an elected official, and being the head of the barangay, it is natural that the distribution should be done by the barangay captain,” said Labella.
The policy when coursing relief goods through the barangay would always be to place it under the care of the elected barangay officials.
Labella admitted that he received various complaints about MILOs’ questionable and indiscriminatte distribution of the relief goods.
He said this should not be done especially during the pandemic when the relief goods should be received by the poorest families.
With this, the mayor said he would want the matter investigated and looked into by the CLO (City Legal Office) to identify if there were really personnel in the MILO abusing their authority.
Read more: Labella to Cebu City residents: Stay calm, follow ECQ guidelines
Meanwhile, the barangays’ chiefs in the city are warned that if they will fail to implement the ECQ guidelines, then they may be asked to explain by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
According to DILG Alexander Macario, the barangay chiefs will be sent show-cause orders if they fail to comply with the guidelines.
Macario encouraged them to ensure the order in their barangays to avoid consequences. /dbs