[ sunstar.com.ph ] November 17, 2008
CEBU CITY –- Representative Pablo John Garcia (Cebu Province, 3rd district) threatened Sunday to sue city officials if they recall, revoke or modify the building permit City Hall issued for the construction of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) building.
He also reminded the city officials that Mayor-on-leave Tomas Osmeña is in no position at this time to give instructions regarding official duties and functions, as stated in the Local Government Code.
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Heeding Osmeña’s instruction sent through text message to “hold” the building permit will expose Acting Mayor Michael Rama to criminal and administrative liability, Garcia said.
But in separate interviews Sunday, Rama and City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said that taking into consideration the City’s proposed road projects around the CPPO building, they have not decided yet what the City can do under the law.
Rama, who is on leave, said they will question why the CPPO building was erected even before the City Office of the Building Office (OBO) released the building permit. He said the City can hold the issuance of an occupancy permit.
Unusual
City officials will meet Monday to discuss if it is legally possible for the city to suspend the building permit while they study a few road projects that could affect the construction site.
In a press statement, Garcia said it was unusual that Fernandez would value Osmeña’s text messages more than the signature of the acting mayor on the building permit issued for the CPPO building.
“The permit, having been issued by the official who has assumed the full powers, duties and functions of the mayor, can no longer be recalled, revoked or in any way modified by anyone else, certainly not by a patient in the US,” the congressman said.
Rama approved the building permit while he was acting mayor last month, when Osmeña flew to the US for treatment of his urinary bladder cancer.
Osmeña admitted that the Capitol’s application was stalled on his desk because he was still studying a road network project that might cut across the Capitol property where the CPPO building stands.
Last Sunday, Osmeña told Fernandez to hold the building permit pending further deliberation by the City Council and studies on the roads’ construction.
Occupancy
“We don’t want to think of any abatement at this time, but they (Capitol) will also have to answer some questions. I was told that the whole building is already there before we released the permit. We will have to check that again and they will have to answer why it was already constructed. I don’t know who may have given them an assurance that a permit will be issued,” Rama told Sun.Star Cebu.
He also said that the city will not issue an occupancy permit for the building, citing Osmeña’s concern on the need to construct a road that may cut across the property occupied by CPPO.
For his part, Fernandez said his meeting with some city officials Monday is meant to investigate and find out how the construction will affect the City’s plan to build a road that will connect Barangays Lahug and Guadalupe.
“Mayor Osmeña wants the permit recalled but whether it can be done or not, I don’t know yet; that’s why we still have to study that. If you say instruction or order, on layman’s terms, the mayor cannot give any because he is on leave. But he certainly can ask us to investigate it,” he said.
He said that he will brief Acting Mayor Hilario Davide III and Osmeña on the results of the meeting Monday.
Code
“Whether Acting Mayor Davide acts on it or not, it’s standard that we inform him, Acting Mayor Rama and the mayor who is on leave. But the order to suspend the permit or not can come only from the acting mayor,” Fernandez said.
In an interview Sunday, Acting City Building Official Josefa Ylanan said that since she assumed her post, the city has not canceled a building permit, although they have suspended a building permit once.
In his press statement, Garcia cited Section 46 of the Local Government Code: “When the governor, mayor or barangay captain is temporarily incapacitated to perform his duties for physical or legal reasons such as leave of absence... the vice governor or vice mayor... shall automatically exercise the powers and perform the duties and functions of the local chief executive concerned, except the power to appoint, suspend or dismiss employees….”
“Acting Mayor Michael Rama can, of course, pretend that he has no mind of his own, disclaim possession of any form of backbone, and substitute the patient’s (Osmeña) judgment for his own,” said Garcia.
Threat
But this, he said, “would be the death of Rama’s free will and integrity,” and would be politically disastrous because it would show that the probable mayoral candidate “is a political doormat without any integrity or self-respect.”
If he cancels the permit, Rama may also have criminal and administrative liabilities for causing undue injury to CPPO and the Province, Garcia said.
“As a legislator with an interest in the operations and efficiency of the CPPO, I will personally file the criminal and administrative charges against Rama, Fernandez and all the other officials who think that humoring that patient in the US is worth more than their jobs, personal integrity and self-respect,” he added. (LCR/Sun.Star Cebu)
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