Transfer of Cebu City treasurer is Rama’s loss, Osmeña’s handiwork

Congressman Tomas Osmeña got his way.

His behind-the-scenes request to remove Cebu City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva for “overstaying” was  sealed yesterday with a July 14 memo  from the Department of Finance (DOF) naming her replacement.

“Treasurer Oliva is hereby instructed to turn over subject office to Ms (Tessie) Camarillo as acting city treasurer…,” said the memo of Ma. Presentation Montesa, executive order of the Bureau of Local Government Finance.

The memo was received yesterday by an exasperated Mayor Michael Rama, who had sought Oliva’s extended assignment in Cebu City because she was “effective” in increasing tax collections.

Attached was a letter of Congressman Osmeña to Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima blocking the extension.

Rama fumed over his predecessor’s intervention but said he didn’t want to call it sabotage.

“I can go up without having to destroy anyone.  I never want to go up by stepping on someone else,” said the mayor.

But the mayor, in his noontime press conference, didn’t say what he’d do next.

Last Friday, Rama was happy to announce that his request for Oliva’s extension was granted.    Oliva also reported for work in City Hall yesterday.

But a letter dated July 15 from the BLGF executive director says the office “revokes” the “fourth extension”   of Oliva’s assignment after July 16 as the acting treasurer of Dumaguete City and her concurrent OIC duties as treasurer of Cebu City.

No specific reason was given.

Mayor Rama expressed frustration that Finance Secretary Purisima, to whom he had written two letters, didn’t grant his request.

“I told them to please remember that there is mayor of Cebu City,” Rama said.

“In due time the truth will come out. I hope Manila will be circumspect. There is such a thing as respect for authority unless they want to run the city government.”

ALARMING PRACTICES

Congressman Osmeña confirmed his hand in the treasurer’s ouster during a press conference last night.

“Practices at City Hall that I did not see during my time are becoming very alarming,” he explained.

Ironcially, it was Osmeña who had handpicked Oliva and arranged for her assignment in Cebu City in 2009.

But now he said he didn’t approve of recent practices in the new administration of Rama.

Osmeña mentioned the folloiwng:

— the quick release of a P5-million check to spend for Christmas lights in the city government’s Christmas décor program last year

— suppliers had a hard time getting paid

— Oliva’s request for a P20-million travel budget for the treasurer’s office, which the city council slashed by half, was “ridiculous.”

His biggest criticism of the treasurer was that Oliva allowed the deposit of most of the city’s funds amounting to at least P1 billion in  the Philippine Veteran’s Bank.

Osmeña said this was not sound management practice.

“These are things that I would put in the waste basket if I were mayor (now),” said Osmeña and that he was starting to see a “series of patterns” in the treasurer’s practices.

In his letter to the Finance secretary, Congressman Osmeña said  Oliva was overstaying in her post in Cebu City.

He said she had to be transferred “in the exigency of the service, and to uphold the moral integrity of te  Department of Finance.”

He recalled that Oliva was first assigned in the city from July 16, 2009, to Jan. 15, 2010.

She was given a first extension from Jan. 16, 2010, to July 15, 2010, and a second extension from July 16, 2010, to Jan. 15, 2011.

(January to July 15 was considered her third extension.

In an interview, the congressman said he had secured two previous extensions for Oliva when he was still Cebu City mayor because she was very helpful in negotiations for the Rallos lot case, where owners were claiming compensation from City hall.

“I was monitoring things very closely then.  But now, it seems that things are done very poorly,” said Osmeña.

Osmeña said he finds assistant city treasurer Tessie Camarillo acceptable as an OIC.

He said Camarillo was “slow” at work but remains honest.

“What we need now is honesty,” he said.

Osmeña said he should not be faulted if the DOF heeded his request.

“Maybe it’s because he (Rama) does not have credibility, I guess.  Would you blame me if he does not have credibility?” said the party chief of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK)

Mayor Rama cut ties last June 2 and announced his “independence”  from the BO-PK, his party for 19 years.

Since then, relations with the BO-PK-dominated City Council and Osmeña have become more bitter.

The July 14 transfer order of the BLGF states:  “Treasurer Oliva is hereby instructed to turn over subject office to Ms Camarillo together with, among others, cash, properties and equipment, books of accounts including cash books and accountable forms and clear herself from money and property accountabilities as OIC-City Treasurer of Cebu City.”

Earlier in June, the Secretary of Finance received Congressman Osmeña’s request.

“In the exigency of the service, and to uphold the moral integrity of te Department of Finance (DOF), more specifically at its station at the City Treasurer’s Office of the City of Cebu, this humble representation of the south district of Cebu City, most respectfully requests for the transfer of the currently designated OIC-City Treasurer of Cebu City, Ms Ofelia Oliva, and the designation of a new OIC-City Treasurer in her stead,” wrote Osmeña.

Osmeña in a press conference last night announced that the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) was willing to hire 14 personnel of the city’s Department for the Welfare of the Urban Poor whose contracts were not renewed in July by Mayor Rama.

Osmeña said President Aquino agreed to allocate P1 million a month for 25 terminated City Hall employees who will be employed by PCUP until 2013.

They will help on the implementation the land tenure law and do community organizing work for PCUP, he said. /Doris C. Bongcac and Edison A Delos Angeles