Captains of some barangays in the south district can now be easily contacted after they were provided with mobile landline telephones by the office of councilor Richard Osmeña.
The councilor, who turned over the mobile landline phones to seven barangay chiefs in his district, yesterday said the project is in line with the objective of the city government to bring the barangays “closer” to the City Hall.
With these mobile landlines, he said the barangay officials are now more accessible and they can also ask for assistance, especially in emergency cases, from the city government anytime.
“It has been the dream of the mayor to bring the barangays closer to the city. So I provided mobile landline phones to the barangay captains in my district so we can easily get in touch with them,” councilor Osmeña said.
The seven barangay-beneficiaries are Bonbon, Babag, Bulacao, Inayawan, Suba, Pasil and Sawang Calero.
“Mao man ni akong mga barangay, so I will take care of them,” the councilor said pointing out that the units were purchased through his salary. A mobile landline phone unit costs P2,500.
But councilor Osmeña said it is the barangay that will shoulder the P600 monthly bill.
“The barangay captains now don’t have an alibi when they could not be contacted because they now have mobile phones which they can carry wherever they are. They can be contacted even during non-office hours, especially during emergency cases,” he said.
The barangay chiefs said they are very grateful because their constituents can now reach them easily and in the event of emergencies, they can immediately call for help from the City Hall without having to personally go there.
Alexander Ibarrita, barangay captain of the mountain barangay of Bonbon, said the mobile telephones will be very useful to their barangay knowing that they do not have their own telephone connection there because they are far from the city proper.
Councilor Osmeña said it will be good if all the barangays in the city are equipped with the same mobile telephones for them to easily communicate with City Hall.
However, he added that he does not intend to propose a resolution in the city council to provide the same units to other barangays because this will take a long process. This is also the reason why he used his own money for the units, he said.
But he added that the other councilors may replicate this initiative. — Wenna A. Berondo/MEEV