Thursday, April 03, 2008 Capitol, Oslob officials hit Tom over comments
SEVERAL Capitol and Oslob town officials lashed out at Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday for saying that the Province failed to give firefighting equipment to Oslob town, which lost its church and a convent to a fire last week.
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, responding to the mayor’s offer of one fire extinguisher and a pail for Oslob, demanded that the city mayor apologize for his “embarrassing” mistake.
Oslob Mayor Ronald Guaren also defended Garcia against the mayor’s latest potshots.
“What is his basis for saying that the Province is not paying attention to the needs of the towns? The fact that the fire trucks were donated is a clear showing that the Province is taking care of the towns. It is just unfortunate that at the time of the incident, the fire trucks were undergoing maintenance and repair,” Guaren said in a text message.
“His irresponsible statement shows that he is insecure of the good governance shown by the governor,” said Guaren.
The governor’s brother, Rep. Pablo John Garcia, offered the mayor an empty cigarette carton marked “Sumada sa utang sa dakbayan sa Sugbo” (A summation of the Cebu City Government’s debts).
“He (Osmeña) should remember that he has a lot of problems,” said the congressman. “Before he speaks, he should know the facts and not just simply rely on the information fed to him by his drinking buddies. He should investigate before he makes any statement.”
In his press conference on Tuesday, Osmeña announced he will donate a fire extinguisher and a pail to the fire station in Oslob. He said he hoped it will encourage the Capitol to address the lack of firefighting equipment in various towns.
Lawyer Rory Jon Sepulveda, Capitol consultant on information, said the Capitol welcomes the mayor’s assistance.
But he also added that mayor apparently suffers from “acute attention deficiency syndrome” since he ignored media reports about the distribution of several fire trucks by the Provincial Government to various towns.
Capitol officials showed reporters photos taken during the distribution of fire trucks led by Governor Garcia. They distributed copies of a memorandum of agreement between the Capitol and the municipal government for the use of the fire truck in Oslob.
The fire in Oslob indicated that the town government simply failed to properly maintain the fire truck donated by the Province, Sepulveda said.
The fire destroyed the Immaculate Conception Parish and its convent in Oslob town last March 26. As the flames devoured the historic structure, residents and firefighters had to push one fire truck—whose clutch was defective—so it could reach the church some 50 meters away from the fire station.
While criticizing the condition of firefighting equipment in some towns, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña also wants to improve the City’s firefighting capability by rehabilitating all its water tanks.
The City has at least six large water tanks that were built before the Martial Law years but because of wear and tear, some of them are no longer in use.
The late former mayor Sergio Osmeña Jr., the mayor’s father, had the tanks built in Barangays San Nicolas, Guadalupe, Parian, Labangon, Sambag I and Cogon Ramos as part of the City’s firefighting facilities at that time.
Tanks
Osmeña said he wants more tanks built in other parts of the city to make it easier and faster for firefighters to fill their trucks when responding to alarms.
“Many of these tanks have not been used, that is why I had it checked. We should rehabilitate these tanks,” he told reporters yesterday.
Each tank can hold up to 20,000 gallons of water and can refill four to five supertankers at any given time.
Constructing and maintaining the tanks would be the City’s contribution in improving the capability of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), said the mayor.
Osmeña said there were many occasions when firefighters failed to put out the flames immediately because they needed to send the trucks to other barangays to refill these with water.
Some firefighters also do not know the exact location of the fire hydrants in the city.
“You can always pass the buck to the BFP but at the end of the day, I am still the mayor and I just have to check on these things. We have to assist them with the repair and maintenance of facilities,” he said.
Aside from the rehabilitation of the tanks, the City Government is also planning to build a “fireboat” that can respond to fires in the coastal areas, particularly the fire-prone sitios in Barangays Ermita and Pasil. (GMD/LCR)
