Special BAC to focus on project rebidding
CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama won’t heed the request of the City Council to put on hold the rebidding of the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).
He will form a special bids and awards committee (BAC) to focus on the rebidding, he said in his news conference yesterday.
On who will make up the special BAC, the mayor said he has directed City Legal Office Chief Atty. Gerone Castillo to determine its members. Its composition, he said, will be announced today.
The mayor will also announce today the functions and composition of the CCMC ad hoc committee, which he has recently reviewed.
Executive session
On the contention of the council that the rebidding should be stopped because the City Government has no funds to support the P600-million project, Castillo said there is no truth to that.
City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas reported that the City has P1.4 billion in the bank.
Aside from the alleged lack of money, the council said it wants to know what happened to the first bidding, which the mayor declared as a failure last month.
The council has scheduled an executive session to discuss the matter on Feb. 26.
During yesterday’s press conference, an upset Rama faced City Hall beat reporters after an “erroneous report” was published in a newspaper (not Sun.Star Cebu) last Feb. 2, which implied that a BAC for CCMC has already been created.
In his press conference during his cousin George Rama’s wake at the Rama compound last Feb. 1, the mayor said he has not discussed the special BAC for CCMC but only the new composition of City Hall’s general BAC.
Warning
“I don’t know why you keep on harping on changing personalities about CCMC. I have been busy with George and you are busy telling lies. I have not tackled yet CCMC (that time) and why will you be writing something I have not tackled. Are you part to destroy me?... Please, don’t make me a subject...The mayor is upset,” he said.
“I will warn you, enough of wrong writing. I will repeat, enough of wrong writing.
Otherwise, I will be bent on choosing whom I should bring here (in the presscon). I don’t mind if I will not end up in any newspaper for as long as I will also not be hit with a statement that was put there erroneously... I have already warned you before.
This is the second warning,” he said.
Rama directed Castillo, who was present during the news conference, to study the filing of a case against the newspaper and the writer.
He also directed the Public Information Office to record his entire daily press conference so he can determine who are writing erroneous reports.
Meanwhile, the management of CCMC issued an official statement yesterday over the incident in the hospital where the nose of a shooting victim was allegedly gnawed by rats.
Apology
In a one-page statement, they said the cause of the “avulsed wound” of Harold Siton is undetermined.
“However, this incident has brought to the attention of the management the need for intensification of pest and vermin control in the current temporary site at the hospital,” they added.
Atty. Rey Cris, CCMC chief of hospital for administration, said they have tapped the services of a pest control firm to address the problem at the CCMC temporary hospital in the Bureau of Fire Protection compound. He said the company will inspect the facility on Monday.
Moreover, the CCMC management said they will enforce disciplinary action against employees found not properly doing their duties and responsibilities.
“The full force of the management’s authority shall be upon them and they shall be dealt with accordingly,” they said.
According to Panugaling, the result of their investigation on CCMC employees about the incident has already been submitted to the City’s Human Resource and Development Office.
“With this, we encourage our transacting public and our clients to give us feedback on their customer experience with the hospital... We apologize to our public for whatever ill this incident effected on them, especially to our loyal clients,” the management added.