No logo and sticker, no fuel - Rama

CEBU, Philippines - Effective today, the Cebu City General Services Office will only release fuel to city-owned vehicles that bear the Cebu City Logo and the sticker “For official use only.”

In a memorandum dated August 22, Mayor Michael Rama said that city government vehicles must always have proper identification.

In his news conference, he explained it is not enough that the vehicle bear red plates.

Requiring proper identification from all city-owned vehicles will help the city keep track if these were not used for personal purposes.

GSO Chief Engineer Rolando Ardosa said they have observed that some vehicles that no longer bear the “For official use only”sticker, including those issued to the barangays, get fuel from the city’s depot.

In another memorandum issued on the same day, Rama also ordered an up to 50 percent cut in fuel allocation of all city-owned vehicles except for garbage trucks and police motorcycles and cars.

The mayor ordered the implementation of austerity measures for fuel due to the limited supply of diesel and gasoline that will no longer last for one month.

The fuel allocation for the Mayor and Vice Mayor’s vehicles will be reduced from 500 liters a month to 200 liters a month effective today.

Fuel allocation for city councilors will be reduced from 300 liters to 150 liters a month while department heads will only get fuel allocation of 100 liters a month from 200 liters.

Assistant department heads will only get 80 liters per month from 150 liters.

City-owned multicabs will only get 50 liters a month from 150 liters a month.

Light vehicles are only entitled to 100 liters and 20 liters for motorcycles.

Heavy equipment will only have 50 percent of their average monthly consumption during the past six months.

Ardosa said garbage trucks and police vehicles are exempted so the collection of garbage and peacekeeping operations of the police will not be compromised.

The city’s diesel supply will only last up to September 3 while the gasoline supply is only good for a month.

Ardosa said they have requested for additional budget for fuel and oil lubricant in the Supplemental Budget No. 2, but SB2 is still pending after the city council returned it to the Mayor’s Office for lack of documentary support.

Meanwhile, Ardosa said that 74 vehicles of the 76 vehicles that the Commission on Audit found unregistered were already registered three months ago.

He said that the vehicles’ registrations were not renewed immediately because the city had a hard time tracing its records.

The vehicles were registered in Mindanao, so the records did not appear in the LTO database. These vehicles were purchased during the previous administration.

Ardosa said that in the first place, the vehicles should not have been registered outside Cebu.

Today, the 74 vehicles are registered in Mandaue City.     - THE FREEMAN