Rama on Gwen in CPA row: ‘Abangan ang susunod’

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama

CEBU CITY, Philippines — “Abangan ang susunod.

This was the statement of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama after learning that there was a communication from Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia addressed to the Cebu Police Provincial Office, concerning the present issue between the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) and the Cebu City government.

“As I’ve said, the role of the governor is in the province [as] simple as that. Having to expand that role within the city ambit, it does not go well when it comes to respect of true territorial jurisdiction,” Rama said in a press conference on Monday, April 8.

Lawyer Jerone Castillo, who was also present during the presscon, shared some information about the said document during the press conference.

Castillo said that the copy of the document was part of their convergence meeting. He said that the document stated that the governor ordered the police to intervene in relation to the CPA, “in fact directing the provincial director to intervene in matters of the CPA.”

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‘Alarming’

Castillo said that the “alarming statement” in the document expressed that the “governor has interest not only of the people of the province but also of the residents of the City of Cebu.”

“That is [the] most alarming to us because we are a highly-urbanized city. And there is only one mayor within our jurisdiction. So for a governor to expand her jurisdiction to the City of Cebu that is a cause of alarm to the city,” Castillo said.

Castillo added that the governor should limit her jurisdiction wherever she ought to exercise her jurisdiction.

Castillo added that he, together with Rama’s legal consultants, were already discussing the matter to determine ways to address the matter at hand.

Furthermore, Rama said that they would always stand to what they believe would be bound by the rule of law.

“We will never stop,” Rama said.

Rama added that the provincial director had to be mindful as well “not much on the matter of the governor expanding her jurisdiction but the right of the mayor.”

‘Enough is enough’

Also on Monday, Garcia took the side of the CPA, defending them from the feud between the city government.

“Enough is enough. Nag apil-apil ang mayor sa teritoryo nga wala siyay labot. Dili na iyang kingdom,” Garcia said in a media briefing on Monday afternoon.

(Enough is enough. The mayor is intervening in the territory where he has no jurisdiction. That is not his kingdom.)

In a report by Sugbo News, the Capitol’s news portal, Garcia expressed the importance of making her position public because the CPA ‘does not just serve Cebu City but the entire Cebu Island.’

Last April 1, Rama ordered some city personnel including the Office of the Building Official (OBO), to probe, and the city’s legal office to stop the ongoing activities of the CPA’s project near Compania Maritima despite the order of its stoppage due to the lack of permits from the city.

The CPA already said in their previous statement that they “stand firm” on their position “that the Cebu Port Authority is not within the territorial jurisdiction of the Office of Building Official of Cebu City as it is undoubtedly beyond the bounds of authority granted to the City’s Building Official as provided in Section 207 of Presidential Decree No. 1096 or the National Building Code of the Philippines.”

But OBO Head Vicente Gimena asserted that the concurrent issue “is not about the ownership” but the absence of the permit for building a structure within the jurisdiction of Cebu City.