Unless the barangay officials who refused to return their service vehicles to City Hall for inventory produce incontrovertible proof that doing so will paralyze services in their areas, then there is no reason for them not to have these luxury vehicles undergo inventory and issued someplace else where they are most needed.
In last Wednesday’s session, the Team Rama-dominated Cebu City Council sought to pressure the Cebu City police from not aiding City Hall personnel in the arrest of barangay officials that refused to return the vehicles issued to them by outgoing Mayor Michael Rama for one reason or another.
They also sought copies of the Memorandum Receipts issued to the vehicles from 2010 up to this year as well as to clarify from the police on whether or not there is a standing order to arrest them.
But we ask if these barangay officials are able to produce the trip tickets and any other documents required for state and city auditors to monitor and justify the use of these luxury vehicles from the time these were issued to them up to the present.
When they refused to return the city-issued vehicles to City Hall for inventory, they also mistakenly expected they would continue to receive the same gasoline allowance allocated to them prior to the change in administration.
Their main overriding concern is not just that they will probably lose their only means of transportation in servicing their constituents—by servicing they probably mean fetching them from their homes to their summer outings and vice versa—but they would lose one of the more important means to curry the favor of their voters.
It’s only when some of them, like Labangon barangay councilman Rodolfo Tabasa, were caught flatfooted at home by General Services Office personnel that they manage to produce and become quite cooperative in returning the city-issued vehicle.
If anything, these luxury vehicles should be returned and these barangay officials issued more modest, yet utilitarian vehicles that are better suited to service their constituents at less cost and expense.
When they said that City Hall should send its personnel to conduct the inventory in their areas rather than have them return it to the South Road Properties (SRP) for inventory, they mean that the vehicles should be inspected only and then left to their care as usual.
The longer these barangay officials led by Councilor Philip Zafra refuse and hold on to the city-issued vehicles, the more contempt and disrespect they invite from city residents who pay for these vehicles with their taxes and are appalled by the sense of entitlement these officials brazenly exhibit when they persist in keeping them.