NEWS BRIEFS

RAMA HITS CITY COUNCIL FOR BUDGET CUT

Unthinking or selfish.

That, in essence, was how Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama described the City Council’s act of slashing his proposed supplemental budget from P256 million to only P124 million.

“I do not know if they are thinking for the city or they are just thinking for themselves,” he said.

Rama will call a meeting of the Local Finance Committee to review the approved supplemental allocation.

Councilor Margot Osmeña, head of the City Council budget committee, said they want to prioritize the payment of employees’ claims and salaries, as well as “more important” expenditures like the P14.7 million aid for the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Also, the Council would not authorize the use the P106 million excess collection from other local taxes because the city has yet to reach the P6.4 billion collection target for the year.  The City Treasurer’s Office has so far collected P3.9 billion.

But Rama, in response, said, “Hitting the collection target is a problem of the executive.  We know how to manage our finances and we have survived.”

Rama said the city government has to spend for road improvements and other projects especially after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake.  He insists on the approval of the P10 million road asphalting included in his proposal./Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac

PART OF JUSTICE PALACE ‘UNFIT’ FOR OCCUPANCY

The fourth floor of Cebu’s Palace of Justice is “unfit” for occupancy, according to an engineer and an architect sent over by the Supreme Court (SC) to inspect the building yesterday.

They found structural damage in the entire fourth floor, which houses all eight courts of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC), because of the 7.2-magnitude earthquake last Tuesday. They were accompanied in the inspection by representatives of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Richard Nicolas, an architect from the SC, said the fourth floor has significant cracks that need a thorough investigation by structural engineers.

Nicolas said their report will be submitted to their chief-of-office as well as to Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.

Newly-appointed Executive Judge Soliver Peras of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Cebu City said they will discontinue holding hearings at the Palace of Justice until otherwise advised.

Peras, however, said that RTC employees are required to report to their respective offices on Monday. MTCC Executive Judge Francisco Seville also said MTCC employees should also report for work on Monday although they won’t be conducting hearings.

PB TO MOVE TO EXECUTIVE BUILDING

Cebu provincial capitol workers who used to hold office in the Legislative Building may have to wait longer before they can go back to their work stations.

Gov. Hilario Davide III said Cebu Provincial Board (PB) members will start holding office in the executive building on Monday after they were given the green light by volunteer structural engineers. “We aim to resume normal operations on Monday. The offices of the legislative branch will have to transfer to the main building,” he told reporters. Engineers from the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (ASEP) and Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) said only a few offices in the executive building were damaged in Tuesday’s earthquake, while the Legislative Building must be off limits for now./Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos