Jonas to move police station to a new place

CEBU, Philippines - Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes stands firm on the city government's decision to transfer the Opao police station whose building is constructed over the Butuanon waterway.

Cortes during a press conference yesterday said city officials should project leadership by example.

Cortes said city officials would look bad if they ordered the demolition of squatters' houses in danger zones and spared the those belonging to the government which are in the same circumstances.

"Kinahanglan nga wa tay pilion ug wa tay dapigon," Cortes said.

The city council had approved a proposed resolution which seeks to transfer the Opao police station to the Public Weighing Station along AC Cortes Street in barangay Cambaro, but Cortes said the city will look for another place for the police.

The city has yet to ask the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for permission to use the abandoned office of the public weighing station.

He said the council resolution is only a manifestation of its desire to relocate the police station but if the national government decides not to allow its use, most probably the city would look for a strategic place where the police station could be most accessible to the four barangays which it serves.

Former Mandaue city Mayor and now Provincial board member Thadeo Ouano has passed a resolution and was approved by the PB last Monday, to review and reconsider the city's plan to remove the police station in his barangay in Opao.

Ouano said that he is not against the transfer but there is still the need for the city to consider first the statistics of crime and its population before the city decides to transfer it.

He said that the reason why he built the Opao Police station during his stint as Mayor of the city was because his barangay is one of the crime prone areas in the city and he wants a police station that is visible to the people. (FREEMAN)