Cebu City Acting Mayor Margot Osmeña won’t order the recall of six Toyota Fortuners used by the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), but she won’t pay for the Super Grandia issued to outgoing Mayor Michael Rama.
Osmeña said the papers for the Toyota Fortuners are in order.
“Those were really part of the budget of POP (peace and order program) last year,” she said.
In contrast, the acting mayor said the Super Grandia used by Rama was not included in any budget.
“And since when is a Grandia an emergency vehicle? As far as I know (Rama) classified (the Grandia) as an emergency vehicle. That’s not an emergency vehicle, plus he already had one, why does he need two?” Osmeña said.
Senior Supt. Benjamin Santos, Cebu City police chief, said he is willing to return the patrol cars to the city government after finding out that they were not yet paid by the city.
The six Toyota Fortuners are included in the 10 Toyota cars that were delivered to the city early this year.
These were distributed to the police by Rama days before the May 9 elections.
Osmeña said the city will definitely pay for the six Fortuners.
She said she is still discussing with the transition team on what should the city do with the Grandia.
“But what I understand, I was told earlier that there are two more Fortuners that were not delivered. And it will not be delivered unless we pay. I said we can return it anyway,” Osmeña said.
She said the city can technically return the vehicles not covered by a purchase order.
Osmeña said they reissued multicabs and buses to some barangays to replace the sports utility vehicles issued to them.
Some mountain barangay chairpersons like Sudlon II barangay chairman Winifredo Macario said the city should check their areas.
He said it is unfair of the city government to file a case against them when in fact their vehicles are all ruined.
He said they had to pay for fuel for the vehicles after the acting mayor cut off their fuel allocation.
Pung-ol Sibugay barangay chairman Jerson Cadampog said he was shocked that he was included in the charges filed by Osmeña at the Ombudsman-Visayas when he returned the vehicles ahead of the May 24 deadline.
Sought for comment, Osmeña said Cadampog can write to her and he will be taken out of the case.
“Maybe there was no documentation on the return of the vehicles,” she said.