City to rid signs of politicians’ pics

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has reminded the Cebu City Government to ban the names, initials and photos of government officials from billboards and signs of government programs, projects and properties.

DILG sent a memorandum circular to Mayor Michael Rama to act on the directive of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III that prohibits the practice.

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The mayor said that since he assumed office last year, he has never engaged in such a practice in all City-funded projects and programs.

“When I came in, I told them nga dili ko gusto nga ang mga project naay mga pangan (I don’t like the projects to bear names of officials). Ang ako lang gipabutang diha (What I included) is ‘Cebu City Government, together we can make things happen,’” Rama said.

However, he admitted that there are City-owned vehicles, particularly the Kaoshiung buses, which are still bearing the pictures of City officials of the previous administration, including his face, being the vice mayor then.

Compliance

In compliance with the DILG memorandum circular, Rama directed City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete to coordinate with other City Hall departments to act on the matter.

Poblete, for his part, sent a memorandum to all City officials and department heads to comply with the DILG directive.

He will task City Engineer Kenneth Enriquez and engineer Rolando Ardoza of the General Services Office to monitor the compliance.

“I will meet with the heads of the Engineering Office and General Services Office because I’ll task them to monitor the issue. We’ll also check what shouldn’t be changed because there are some property rights that might be affected,” Poblete said in Cebuano.

Rama is also enjoining the barangay chief executives in the City to be aware of the DILG memorandum.

He said it is incumbent upon the mayor to bring the matter to all concerned “so that when there will be following through, they wouldn’t say that we are not doing anything.”

Support

Last year, the City Council, through Councilor Jose Daluz III, approved a resolution expressing support for the immediate passage of Senate Bill 2187 of Sen. Francis Escudero.

Escudero’s bill penalizes government officials who will “label or acknowledge the procurement of items with their names or identities as if the projects or items were
personally funded,” when taxpayers’ money was used.

Under the bill, government officials whose names are found on government projects will be imprisoned for one year and will be fined P100,000 to P1,000,000, depending on the amount of the project.

Second-time offenders will be disqualified from public office.