What's city-owned equipment doing in dad's property?

Acting Cebu City Administrator Francisco Fernandez ordered the city legal office to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deployment of city-owned equipment to a property owned by Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa over the weekend.

Fernandez said he has called for an investigation on the incident to find out if there was impropriety in the deployment of the City Hall equipment in a property located at the corner of N. Bacalso and Leon Kilat streets, which was formerly owned and occupied by television network ABS-CBN.

In relation to this, Fernandez said he wants to know if there were some flaws in the city guidelines regarding the deployment of city-owned equipment and if there was a need to formulate measures to correct such, if any.

The deployment of three city-owned garbage trucks and a bulldozer in Abellanosa's acquired lot, triggered such probe considering that, as a matter of policy, the city does not lease or lend its equipment.

Yet Suba barangay captain Joel Sable, who went to see Fernandez yesterday morning, quickly cleared Abellanosa of any liabilities in the incident, explaining that the good councilor was just trying to help them address their need for a filling material.

And when he found out that Abellanosa ordered his men to clear the debris from the demolished building in the property, Sable said he seized the opportunity and was glad when the councilor agreed that they could have it as filling material for an inlet in between the Pasil Fish Port and a seawall in barangay Suba.

Sable insisted the reclamation project in the area, which is to be funded from the priority development assistance fund of Cebu City South District Representative Antonio Cuenco, already had the approval of the mayor a year ago.

In cases where barangay projects got the mayor's approval, Fernandez said deployment of city-owned vehicles and equipment from the city engineering office on weekends becomes automatic.

However, Fernandez said they still have to validate the statements of Sable because City Engineer Antonio Sanchez denied receiving any request from barangay Suba to use city equipment for its project.

As it appeared, only Engineer Apollo Dante of the maintenance section of the city's Department of Engineering and Public Works approved the request of Sable.

Dante, however, refused to be interviewed when sought for comment on the matter but a talk with Fernandez revealed that the former was banking on the letter-request of Suba. And it being a barangay project, Dante allowed the use of city equipment.

Eventually, Abellanosa, according to Sable, directed that carrying of debris from his property be stopped in view of this controversy, as he does not want to be accused of doing something irregular which might besmirch his name, both as an educator and politician.

Sable said they were able to bring in 12 truckloads of debris but not enough to complete their reclamation project.