Saturday, June 28, 2008 Editorials: Tug-of-war on city fire chief
CITY Hall’s conflict with officials of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) on the status of Cebu City Fire Station Chief Esmael Codilla seems to be coming to a head.
The twist there is that despite the conflict’s lingering nature and its significance, reports on it has remained under the radar, eclipsed by sensational and tragic stories.
But the plot is interesting: Codilla is facing grave misconduct and malversation of funds charges, BFP is set to relieve him and Mayor Tomas Osmeña is opposing it.
City Hall
The mayor insists Codilla is doing a good job as the city fire marshal and should stay put and believes the charges were filed to provide BFP with basis for the transfer.
A reminder: the BFP is not a department of City Hall but the city is giving financial assistance to the city fire station and the BFP 7 office sits on a city property.
Also, the mayor and some city officials have Malacañang connections.
Palace
BFP officials’ administrative prerogative is thus ranged against City Hall’s financial clout and high-level influence, and it’s a no-brainer which side will prevail.
BFP central office ordered Codilla replaced by Chief Insp. Oscar Mayol but its implementation was stymied by a councilor’s
phone call to a Malacañang official.
The result: the turnover rites yesterday did not push through; instead, Presidential Management Staff Director General Cerge Remonde announced Codilla will stay.
Anarchy
The BFP central office may have abused its discretion and Codilla should not have been charged after his office incurred P400,000 in debts at a gasoline station.
City Hall officials may even have to be praised for standing up for a “good man.”
But there is something to be said about the strategy of threatening to withdraw help and using Malacañang links to override an order of another government entity.
To be sure, the Codilla case is not the first time that this has happened and City Hall people are not the only government officials using this strategy.
But this does not mean the practice is totally acceptable.
The muscle-flexing does not look good and spawns anarchy in the bureaucracy.
