|
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Sandalo on cards: No thanks, Tom
CEBU City Police Office (CCPO) Director Cecil Ezra Sandalo is not accepting any cell card from Mayor Tomas Osmeña, although the police official acknowledged the cards will be a big help to the police.
“For the reason of delicadeza,” Sandalo told reporters in a press conference yesterday.
“Of course, the CCPO welcomes all forms of assistance from any source. It will definitely help in our operations, especially during the election period. We thank him,” Sandalo said.
Osmeña, however, earlier announced that he will give the P20,000 worth of cell cards to Supt. Pablo Labra II, not to Sandalo, whom he said he no longer recognizes as CCPO director.
Defense
Labra heads the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau of the CCPO.
The mayor also defended his move of giving free pre-paid cellular phone cards to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), saying he could have given more than just free loads if he intended to bribe its personnel.
“If they (detractors) criticize me for bribery, I can cut it (assistance) all off, but then we won’t have an election in Cebu,” he said.
He described as “ridiculous” the allegation that what he did is bribery. He said the cards will help improve Comelec’s communication capability.
Experiment
Osmeña said the cards will be his “little experiment” to see if it will improve the CCPO’s performance in its peace and order campaign.
He decided to buy phone cards instead of radio transceivers for CCPO because the police need the cards more. He said policemen now have cellular phones, which is more efficient than radios.
Aside from cell cards, the City has also given Comelec computer units and paid for some of its personnel. It is also renting a space where the Comelec is holding office.
Fund
He said the P42,000 funding for the cards, which he negotiated for a discounted price, was taken from his unused discretionary fund for last year.
Told that discretionary funds from previous years are supposed to be integrated to the current year’s general fund, Osmeña said the money was already allocated for police intelligence.
Asked if he is not causing demoralization in the PNP for coursing the cards through Labra and not through Sandalo, Osmeña said it is “not my problem”.
The matter, however, is not an issue with Sandalo. The police official is confident Labra will distribute the cell cards equally to the different units and precincts in the CCPO.
He said Labra is a competent intelligence officer and would know which unit needs the cards more.
But if Labra had his way, he will give Sandalo a card because the city director needs this to communicate with his men.
However, he has not yet received any guidelines from the mayor regarding the distribution of the cell cards.
Osmeña had wanted Labra to take Sandalo’s post, but Labra declined saying there are older, more qualified officers for the job.
In recent weeks, the mayor had been very vocal about his disgust with Sandalo.
He said Sandalo no longer recognizes him as mayor with his failure to inform City Hall about major police incidents, including the shooting to death of Hindang, Leyte mayor Roy Jumao-as and son Jake. RHM/MEA
(March 24, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
