Sonny to sack 705 casuals

A TOTAL of 705 casual employees of the Toledo city government will have to find work elsewhere once Mayor-elect John Henry Osmeña takes over on July 1.

In a recent press conference, Osmeña said some of the casual employees are assigned as street cleaners who do nothing but sit in air-conditioned rooms in City Hall.

“We’ll have a street cleaning festival and I will invite you to come,” he said in jest.

“I am sorry to say that there are going to be 705 unemployed casual employees. We are going to dismiss these street cleaners and we will bring down those ladies and gentlemen up in the hills to clean the streets,”  he added.

Not all will be out of job, Osmeña said, because there will be some who will be reappointed, like the ambulance drivers, garbage collectors and market cleaners.

Department heads will  remain in their positions since they have civil service eligibilites.

“I have to respect the eligibility, but in some departments I succeeded in getting the people I trust,”  Osmeña said.

The former senator tursaid he managed to replace the Toledo City police chief but was unable to replace the municipal treasurer since it is the Department of Finance that  appoints the official.

Aside from being city planning officer, Caroline Labrador may be appointed as city administrator.

The incoming city mayor said he will not hold office in the Toledo City Hall is located in barangay Ilihan. Instead, Osmeña said he will hold office at the former Travelers’ Inn in sitio Seaside, barangay Poblacion at the center of the city.

Osmeña said he would hold conferences in the old City Hall and eventually convert it into a university.

He said he had offered the facility to  Augustus Go of the University of Cebu, but he refused.

Osmena then asked the De La Salle brothers if they are interested in opening a campus in Talisay City..  “With all due respect to (outgoing Rep. Eduardo) Gullas, I don’t want a UV (University of the Visayas) in Toledo,” Osmeña said.

A park will also be developed in barangay Bulongan and would call it mines view park because it will be overlooking in the mines of Atlas.

“That’s where we put the building for the museum of  mines and call it the museum of Atlas Mines,”  Osmeña said. /Christine Emily L. Pantaleon, Correspondent