Newsbriefs

‘REMOVE THOSE FACES’

CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama ordered Engineer Rolly Ardosa of the General Services Office to remove the faces of past and present councilors and Rep. Tomas Osmeña of the city’s south district on some Kaohsiung buses.

“I asked them to totally remove it pursuant to the request of the President,” he said.

President Benigno Aquino III through the Department of Interior and Local Government earlier ordered the removal of faces of politicians on government vehicles and projects.

Rama’s face is also on the group picture of winning candidates of the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan  party which he left earlier this year.

He said what Rep. Cutie Del Mar and her father and predecessor Raul did was not the removal of their faces but defacing of the buses.

“When you want to erase, then there should be no trace of the picture or the name whatsoever,” he said.

Rama said even before the President issued his directive he already ordered employees not to put faces and photos on any city project.

The tents the city lends to constituents only carry the label “Cebu City Government” or “Office of the Mayor,” he said.

“Why would you keep on putting up your name? Have you forgotten your name?” he said. /CORRESPONDENT EDISON A. DELOS ANGELES

RULING ON USURPATION DEFERRED

THE Department of Interior and Local Government in Central Visayas yesterday deferred ruling on the usurpation case that the late Cebu vice governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. filed against Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.

The deferment followed the manifestation of Garcia’s lawyer Christina-Codilla Frasco that they want to file a motion for reconsideration and offer new evidence.

“What is happening now is that there are many issues included in the case that are not a part of it and we find this highly objectionable,” Frasco said.

She said hearing officer Rannie Spencer Palisok has yet to rule on the standing of Gigi Sanchez-Zaballero who is pursuing the case.

The governor’s camp presented three witnesses in yesterday’s hearing.

Provincial Human Resource Management Officer Noli Vincent Valencia said the office of the vice governor never appointed casual or contractual workers.

Valencia showed a copy of a  Civil Service Commission paper rejecting an attempt by Sanchez to appoint employees.

Provincial Administrator Eduardo Habin said he was delegated by the governor’s office to approve the overtime pay of the employees. He said he does not remember an instance when overtime work was unpaid.

Provincial Attorney Martino MArtinquilla also took the witness stand. Lawyer Rory John Sepulveda said they will present another witness when the hearing resumes today./CORRESPONDENT RHEA RUTH V. ROSELL