Monday, November 24, 2008 2 top advisers offer to resign By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
FOLLOWING protocol, two high-ranking Cebu City Hall officials will submit their courtesy resignation letters to the acting mayor while Mayor Tomas Osmeña is on indefinite leave.
City Administrator Francisco “Bimbo” Fernan-dez, considered as Os-meña’s alter ego, and City Planning and Development Coordinator Nigel Paul Villarete said they will express their intention to resign as a sign of respect and out of courtesy to Acting Mayor Michael Rama.
Both officials said they have a good working relationship with the acting mayor, but they want to give Rama the chance to choose a city administrator and city planning officer he fully trusts.
Rama confirmed last night that Fernandez brought up the matter after a breakfast meeting yesterday, but said he does not want to think or talk about the resignation of any city official at this time.
“Why should anyone resign? Remember that ang akong pagka- mayor acting ra (I’m only mayor in an acting capacity). And I don’t even have to think of resignation because there is no reason to resign. We all need them now and the more that we should be one at this time,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
Customary
City officials are busy with negotiations and transactions for important projects, including the sale of the South Road Properties (SRP) and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which Fernandez and Villarete are working on.
Both officials plan to submit their courtesy resignation letters on Dec. 9 yet to give Rama time to make adjustments, if he decides to accept it.
“I had originally planned an irrevocable resignation but the acting mayor said it should not be irrevocable. It’s customary to submit a courtesy resignation because my position is one of trust and confidence, so it’s really up to him. Whether or not he will accept it is up to his discretion, I just had to let him know that I will only serve him at his own pleasure,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez, a close ally and confidante of Osmeña, was appointed city administrator since 2004, and is one of three City Hall officials whose term of office is coterminous with the mayor’s.
As the mayor’s alter ego, he also sits as chairman and representative of the mayor in the bids and awards committee, Cebu City Housing Board, Cebu City Market Authority, Joint Venture Selection Committee and other bodies.
In a phone interview last night, he stressed that he has a good working relationship with Rama, and that there are no differences in management style or clash of opinions on certain matters.
“It’s really the custom, it’s protocol that I should offer to him my resignation. I will be happy to continue serving Acting Mayor Rama and the City but I feel that he should be offered the chance to choose a city administrator with whom he has full trust and confidence, in the same way that Mayor Osmeña was given that chance,” said Fernandez.
If Rama accepts his resignation, Fernandez said he will be happy to return to City Hall when Osmeña comes back from his urinary bladder cancer treatment in the US.
Last night, Villarete also told Rama his decision to submit a courtesy resignation as a sign of respect for him, but the latter also declined.
Although his position as department head is permanent and not coterminous, he said he also wants to give Rama a free hand in choosing his own City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) chief, who he said handles matters that are highly confidential.
Hope
“What I’m going to submit is not an irrevocable resignation but a courtesy resignation. I sincerely hope Mike will disapprove it and let me continue what I’m doing with the BRT and climate change concerns. It’s offered out of respect and courtesy,” Villarete told Sun.Star Cebu.
Villarete is also the one directly negotiating with the Asian Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency for projects at the SRP and other areas of technical cooperation.
“Even if I’m a permanent employee, there is no harm in submitting a courtesy resignation because many of the things I’m doing now are highly confidential with the mayor. It’s a token of courtesy that I will be submitting my letter,” he continued.
Fernandez said he already informed Osmeña of his plans through the mayor’s wife, Margot, after his meeting with Rama yesterday. But he also assured them that he will return to his post as soon as the mayor comes back.
Osmeña’s chemotherapy in the US is expected to last three to five months.
Resignation
If his resignation is accepted, Fernandez said he will return to Pagtamba-yayong Foundation Inc., the nongovernment organization that he helped put up to assist the urban poor in their housing needs.
Before his appointment as city administrator, he was also chief of the Division for Welfare of the Urban Poor, and was Osmeña’s consultant on poverty alleviation before that.
Fernandez, a veteran community organizer and former presidential urban poor commissioner, was also one of the campaign managers of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) in the 2001 and 2004 elections.
Apart from functions designated by the mayor and the City Council, the Local Government Code requires the city administrator to be at the forefront of support services and help coordinate different services at City Hall.
AFTER last Saturday’s shooting that left a barangay tanod wounded, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador told his men to stay alert when conducting patrols and checkpoint operations.
Comendador said the two policemen and the tanods from Barangay Lorega San Miguel who conducted the checkpoint along Echavez St. were caught off guard when one of the two armed men shot tanod Mariano Calbario in the chest.
Calbario has been declared out of danger. The city police force has extended assistance to Calbario for his hospital bills.
Sketch
Yesterday, the joint investigating team from the Parian Police Station and the Homicide Section released the cartographic sketch of the gunman.
He was described to be in his 30’s, about 5’5” tall, of medium build and with dark complexion.
Comendador said a team, composed of PO1s Aldrin Pelayo and Rey Iligan from the Parian Police Station, Calbario and another tanod, was conducting a “secondary checkpoint” as backup to the main checkpoint in the adjacent road along M. J. Cuenco Ave. when the shooting happened.
Another direction
He said the CCPO came up with secondary checkpoint with fewer personnel manning the post because they have observed that some criminals drive to another direction once they see a checkpoint ahead.
Those who are on board passenger jeepneys disembarked and transfer to other vehicles.
Comendador said the secondary checkpoint also served as a “trap.”
Comendador, however, brushed aside reports that the police were outwitted by the gunman and a companion.
The two policemen fired back but failed to hit the two, who eluded arrest by running towards the interior portion of the barangay.
For Comendador, the policemen and the tanods thwarted a possible robbery. (JTG)
