City fire chief now off the heat

CEBU, Philippines - The national office of the Bureau of Fire Protection has dismissed the grave misconduct charge against Cebu City fire marshall Esmael Codilla for lack of merit.

The order for the dismissal of the case, promulgated by acting BFP chief Rolando Bandilla, Jr. arrived last August 10.

Atty. Jhufel Brañanola, special hearing officer of BFP’s Investigation and Intelligence Division, recommended the dismissal of the case that was investigated by the Internal Affairs Service of BFP.

The formal charge was issued by the BFP national headquarters against Codilla last May 2008 for his alleged mismanagement of the city fire department.

A pre-hearing conference was held last November 25 after a formal investigation conducted by the Internal Affairs Service as the prosecution.

In the position paper received by Brañanola from the IAS on January 21, the latter said Codilla should be held liable for his alleged failure to fully explain the discrepancies and errors in his explanation as to the overdropped fuel consumption of Cebu City Fire Station for 2005 to 2006.

Codilla, according to the IAS, also failed to fully account the fuel withdrawals he made with Petron Basak Station tantamount to malversation of public funds and also has an equivalent offense as grave misconduct.

In the position paper that he submitted on February 17, Codilla stated that he was not afforded due process of law as there was no formal complaint filed against him as matter of procedure in initiating an administrative case against a civil service employee such as him.

He further argued that based on the evidences presented so far before the fact-finding committee, there is allegedly no adequate substantial evidence to prove all the elements of malversation in the said case.

“As the City Fire Marshall of Cebu City Fire Station, Respondent’s (my) position has no direct custody or control of the funds or property, particularly the fuel allocation disbursed and even for the gasoline purchases itself,” Codilla said.

“It is applied in Region 7, as well as to other regions in my knowledge, that the funds disbursed and released for fuel allocation are released directly by the Regional Office to the respective gasoline stations where the gasoline were purchased or withdrawn and does not in any way pass into my possession and custody.”

He further stated that the gasoline needed for the operations within his jurisdiction are taken directly from the gasoline stations involved, subject to the payment and disbursement procedure of the Bureau, and technically thus are not yet considered as BFP property since it is still subject to the verification and payment at the Bureau.

In response, the BFP said that they believed that the absence of a formal complaint does not warrant the automatic dismissal of the case. It was, accordingly, cured when Bandilla created a fact-finding committee to investigate the veracity of the complaint.

Their investigation also showed that there were numerous instances of gasoline withdrawals even if there were no fire occurrence, as indicated in the fire incident reports.

The fact-finding committee, in response, then said that Codilla’s alleged failure to fully explain the fuel purchases and the over drop of fuel being committed is not tantamount to malversation as the same does not fall within the meaning of malversation.

“In fact, the overdrop of fuel allocation committed by the respondent is not attributable to his own fault. The unprecedented oil price hike and the non-increase of fuel allocation was the key factors why an overdrop exists and not because of the mismanagement of the respondent (Codilla).”

However, the committee said that while Codilla cannot be faulted on the overdropped fuel allocation, this does not mean that he is already free of any liability in the payment of the fuel withdrawn from Petron Basak Gas Station. — Niña G. Sumacot/WAB   (THE FREEMAN)