Status quo at BFP as talks ensue to resolve standoff

SUPER typhoon Yolanda cooled off the simmering tension between the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) 7 and the Cebu City Hall’s demolition team.

Councilor Gerardo Carillo said the BFP personnel will be allowed to occupy temporary offices used by the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) inside the BFP building until the weather improves.

Firefighters and rescue personnel had to disperse at 7:30 p.m. last Thursday from the human barricade they formed to prevent the transfer of their belongings from the BFP building along Natalio Bacalso Avenue to the City Sports Center.

“It’s now a legal thing,” said Carillo, who was part of the city’s negotiation team who met with BFP Regional Director SSupt Ma Luisa Hadjula before last Thursday’s confrontation. Firetrucks from towns and cities also returned to their mother units late Thursday night.

BFP personnel and search and rescue units were allowed to occupy the temporary quarters they set up inside temporary CCMC offices.

Mayor Michael Rama said he will let City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo to handle the city’s concerns with Hadjula. “I am just thinking of the people,” he said.

Hadjula said she was already coordinating with their head for the “legal remedies” that they will take against Rama. “What the mayor did to us is inhuman,” she said.

Hadjula claimed that the city’s demolition team especially its head Raquel Arce smelled of liquor while enforcing the eviction notice.

But Arce said in a separate interview that she didn’t have to drink to enforce the mayor’s order for BFP to vacate the CCMC temporary offices inside the BFP building.

Hadjula also justified the presence of nine fire trucks during the standoff, saying that it was a show of support especially since three of her female personnel were hurt during the commotion.

One sustained bruises on her arm while another had a scratch on her face. Another one was hit allegedly on the breast. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac