After asking again whether someone made money from scrap iron in the demolition of the Cebu City Medical Center, suddenly it’s all quiet in the Cebu City Council.
No mention was made in yesterday’s council session, although Councilor Noel Wenceslao, an ally of Mayor Michael Rama, earlier said he would sponsor a resolution asking the Ombudsman to investigate the issue to ensure a netural inquiry.
Wenceslao was absent yesterday. He was in South Korea to attend a forum.
The Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) bloc said it was unnecessary for the Ombudsman to continue.
“It’s a closed issue. There’s no need to revive it because it was discussed before. Now it’s mired in politics since it was raised by Team Rama only after Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos defected to the BO-PK,” said Councilor Sisinio Andales.
Andales raised the salvage issue last year in the City Council prompted by a column of Sun.Star’s Elias Espinoza who alleged that an unnamed city official benefited from scrap materials of the demolished CCMC building.
The Team Rama bloc, which downplayed it last year, now wants a full-blown investigation of the incident.
Asked why he dropped the issue, Andales said there was no clear “complainant and respondent.”
Andales said the whereabouts of the scrap materials were explained in a December 2014 executive session.
He said City Engr. Jose Marie Poblete told the council that JLC Construction, a private contractor employed then by businesswoman Mariquita Yeung, helped demolish the old building at no cost to the city.
The demolition cost the salvager P7 million and they recovered only P1.8 million worth of scrap materials, based on their report.
De Los Santos, who used to head the CCMC ad hoc committee, said the contractor’s admission was enough explanation.
“I just hope that reviving that issue won’t t blow up in someone else’s face,” she said. Yeung is a supporter of Mayor Rama and a big donor in the CCMC fund raising.
Both Mayor Michael Rama and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella are supporting an investigation by the Ombudsman-Visayas on the case.