Thursday, August 28, 2008 PGMA designates defense secretary as point person for DVI expenses
CEBU City Vice Mayor Michael Rama was relieved when President Arroyo designated Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro as point person whom city officials can approach for logistical requirements.
This, after the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) sent a bill for the electricity used at the forensic site at the Cebu International Port (CIP), amounting to P40,000.
Rama said there are no fund sources for it, and they don’t know who will foot the bill.
During the President’s visit last Sunday, Rama asked her who the City Government should coordinate with for logistics and other needs at the forensic site.
Teodoro, also the chairman of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD), was designated by the President to oversee the matter.
Rama said that he has asked the regional office of the OCD to coordinate with their national office and relay the President’s instructions.
“We will also send them a formal communication on our concerns for logistical support. We hope they will incorporate in the budget whatever expenses we will incur at the forensic site, especially now that Veco is collecting P40,000 for the electric bill,” he told reporters yesterday.
The forensic site at the CIP hosts several refrigerated container vans and the mobile morgue where the bodies of the mv Princess of the Stars victims will be stored.
More container vans will be needed when some 800 bodies are shipped to Cebu once the sunken vessel is hauled to shore.
“We hope the OCD will bring up to Secretary Teodoro the need to be prepared when the bodies arrive. It’s better now that we have a point person because everything is clarified and simplified. At least we already know who to approach when we talk about requirements at the forensic site, rather than go to different personalities in
Malacañang,” Rama said.
The vice mayor declined from commenting on the Board of Marine Inquiry’s (BMI) recommendation to cancel the franchise of Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI).
What’s important, he said, is for the Coast Guard and other maritime government agencies to be proactive and not reactive when it comes to sea tragedies.
The SLI should also not be singled out as there are other vessels operating that may not be seaworthy.
In a news conference yesterday, Rama said he will leave the BMI’s report for the government agencies to handle, while the City prepares for the arrival of more bodies.
“Let government agencies handle that, but they should not be just reactive but proactive. When will we ever learn? What they should put in place are preventive measures, and they should not focus only on Sulpicio because there may be other vessels that don’t have optimum seaworthiness,” he added. (LCR)
