CITOM starts removing lampposts

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government through the City Traffic Operations Management started removing yesterday the ASEAN decorative lampposts installed along Salinas Drive and will remove the rest installed in three other streets within the next four days.

CITOM Board Chairman Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem said it is just right to remove the lampposts because it has become a “symbol of corruption” of some officials and is hurting the image of Cebu City.

There are 677 lampposts installed in Cebu City that will be removed. The total lampposts installed in the city streets were actually 685 but when the Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas conducted their inventory, they found out that eight lampposts are already missing.

All these lampposts are no longer functional four months after installation, Jakosalem said.

“And besides, they are ugly now. They are no longer decorative. They are very clear symbols of corruption,” Jakosalem said.

The ASEAN lampposts were installed supposedly to beautify selected streets in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-lapu during the 12th ASEAN Summit in 2007.

There were 1,800 overpriced lampposts purchased for the ASEAN summit. A while after the summit though, the lampposts started deteriorating due to lack of proper maintenance.

The lampposts are still the subject of pending litigation after its purchase was found irregular because the prices were marked up more than 10 times the original price.

Each lamppost was supposed to cost P50,000 to P55,000 but it was found that the government paid more. Based on the computations, the government paid about P250,000 for each item, and lost over P45 million.

The Public Information Office is documenting the removal of the lampposts. All the removed lampposts will be turned over to the General Services Office for safe keeping so that the items will be available for viewing once needed by the court.

The lampposts are replaced by bougainvilleas provided by the City Agriculture’s Office. Earlier, CITOM said plants will replace the lampposts while they are unable to replace the sidewalk.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor gave consent to the request of the city government to remove the lampposts because these are obstructing the sidewalks.

Mayor Michael Rama said that he will no longer use the lampposts because it is tantamount to tampering. Rama said it will be sealed and kept at the GSO warehouse until the case is over.

Earlier, he planned to use it for the senior citizens park he is planning to build beside the Gotiaoco Building but said that he will ask the Beautify Cebu Movement instead, to include the senior citizens park in their beautification project. — (FREEMAN)