City Hall employees conduct an inventory of the vehicles parked in front of the Sugbu Building at the South Road Properties (SRP). (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
About 133 vehicles and 55 motorcycles were turned over to the city government and parked at the South Road Properties (SRP) grounds in compliance with an order issued by acting Cebu City Mayor Margot Osmeña for an inventory of all City Hall vehicles and equipment.
Yesterday’s turnover came amid complaints from department heads that it affected their operations. The turnover also included vehicles used by barangay officials.
Police vehicles, patrol cars, ambulances, garbage trucks, traffic vehicles, fire trucks, and vehicles used by emergency units are excluded from the order.
Cebu City Health Officer Dr. Daisy Villa said the recall of vehicles hampered their outreach campaigns in the mountain barangays.
“I asked the acting mayor what will happen to our services like clinics, but she said just return the vehicle,” Villa said.
City Market Administrator Raquel Arce, who also heads the Prevention, Restoration, Order and Beautification (Probe) team, said she and her personnel had to walk around Carbon market and back to their office.
Arce said she didn’t mention her concerns to Osmeña after seeing the list of vehicles exempted from the inventory order.
Collin Russell, head of the City Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor (DWUP), said their two vehicles were used to cover several city social housing sites and recalling them will hamper their operations.
Asst. General Services Office chief Ronald Malacora said the department heads can always write their concerns to the acting mayor for resolution.
He said they don’t have records on how many vehicles are actually at the city’s disposal.
He said they imposed a May 23 deadline for the recall of all city-issued vehicles.
Malacora said based on their records last Wednesday, Cebu City Councilors Mary Ann Delos Santos, Noel Wenceslao, Acting Vice Mayor Lea Japson, Margot and suspended Mayor Michael Rama and suspended Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella turned over their vehicles.