CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña denied that the heavy equipment worth P4.4 million that the city purchased during his time as mayor were second-hand units.
“It’s not second hand. It’s old stock but it`s never been used,” said Osmeña in an interview.
Osmeña’s statement came after his successor, Mayor Michael Rama claimed that the dump trucks purchased during Osmeña’s time were not actually brand new as he made the public believe.
Osmeña narrated that several years ago, Hino Philippines had about 200 trucks that were not sold as a result of the financial crisis in Asia.
Hino offered to sell some of the heavy equipment to the city at P6 million. Osmeña turned down the offer as he was not interested.
It was one Franklin Ong, the distributor of Hino, who managed to sell the vehicles to the city at P4.4 million.
“The trucks were in the warehouse for two years, but they were not second hand, not owned by anyone else. We can prove it in the registration as it is straight from the importation papers to the City of Cebu,” he said.
Osmeña said the purchase was done through public bidding.
Osmeña added that what’s important to him was the fact that the city was able to save.
“We were not talking about a Mercedez Benz, but a truck. It doesn`t change, from year to year,” he said.
And to dispute allegations that the trucks were “chop chop” or second-hand, Osmeña said, he had the engine dismantled in front of the media for them to see its condition.
“And these are the trucks that are running now. The city had saved,” he said. — (FREEMAN)