Sunday, June 15, 2008 Marshal remains in place pending orders
UNTIL orders are issued by the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) central office, Supt. Esmael Codilla will remain fire marshal of Cebu City.
BFP 7 Director Eleuterio Iturriaga said they have not received any order for Codilla’s relief or suspension from his post.
BFP Chief Enrique Linsangan ordered last May 19 the filing of administrative and criminal charges against Codilla for allegedly failing to account for more than P400,000 in gasoline bills.
“At this point, he is still the fire marshal of Cebu City,” Iturriaga said. He said he has yet to receive a copy of the resolution of the case.
It was Iturriaga who requested the central office to conduct a fact-finding inquiry after learning that the Cebu City Fire Station owed a gasoline station P433,560.
Asked if it was BFP procedure to suspend or relieve its personnel facing such charges, Iturriaga said that it depends on Codilla’s answer to the formal charge.
The BFP has given Codilla five days to submit a reply to the committee’s report on whether he wants a formal investigation or not.
Codilla has initially declined to comment on the charges.
But in his written explanation to the fact-finding committee last September, he pointed out that discrepancies in the logbook and the records were only mistakes and could easily be reconciled.
He also said that during a period in February 2007, there were numerous withdrawals because of a huge fire that kept rekindling for more than a week.
There were also some items that he claimed were overlooked by the gasoline station and that some of the original documents the committee asked him to provide had already been submitted to the national office.
However, the committee concluded that the supporting figures Codilla submitted had discrepancies and that there was no evidence that these were not committed. (MEA)
