Rama defends tenure from Tom’s tirades

RAMA

MORE than one year out of office and former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama is still defending his administration against Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who blamed him for the city’s ills in his first State of the City Address (Soca) last week.

In yesterday’s press conference, Rama kicked off his defense by saying he should not be blamed by the mayor about the city’s problems on garbage collection and disposal.

“He’s been there for a year already. Why is he passing the blame to Mike Rama. Wake up. You are the one managing it. If you cannot do it, be replaced. Labella is there, he is just waiting,” Rama told reporters.

Rama insisted that there were no irregularities in the city’s use of the private landfill in Consolacion as a dumping site, and challenged Osmeña to file a case against him.

He said the city was paying the same rate as other local governments who were also dumping in Consolacion.

Rama also said the P900 million in pledges from international groups for the Cebu City Medical Center has yet to materialize.

Rama said the donors were discouraged since Osmeña is the mayor and they knew how the mayor wanted to sell the city hospital before.

As for the Piso Mo, Hospital Ko fundraising drive in the city, Rama said the proceeds were turned over to the City Treasurer’s Office when he was still mayor.

He said Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos, who used to be with Barug Team Rama but has already transferred to Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK), also knows about this already.

Councilor Jose Daluz III, who joined the mayor in his press conference, said the Osmeña administration should not blame Rama.

“There are also included. At that time, they (BO-PK) were the majority in the City Council. And despite their being obstructionists, the Rama administration has still done a lot,” Daluz said.

Rama said he submitted an affidavit to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) defending himself from the repeated pronouncements of President Duterte that he was allegedly a drug protector.

But he refused to disclose to reporters the contents of his affidavit and which DILG office he sent it to.

Rama said he will also submit a similar affidavit to another national government agency.

The former mayor lamented that despite his efforts to seek an audience with the President in order to defend himself, he still failed to do so.

Without going into details, he said the affidavit also contains reports about the city’s accomplishments in the fight against illegal drugs during his administration.

Rama said Mayor Osmeña should not be a “credit grabber” on the city government’s achievements in the war against illegal drugs.

The former mayor said it is the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Cebu City police that take the lead in the campaign.