Mayor snubs meeting with CPA
CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Michael Rama snubs the invitation of the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) Board of Directors to a meeting so they can explain to him the fencing of their property around the old Compania Maritima.
After announcing that he has no intention to attend the CPA board meeting, Rama reiterated his order to City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete to remove the metal fence that the CPA installed without a permit from the City Hall.
Poblete said he will wait until the five-day period of the order he issued to expire and if the CPA will not remove the fence, the city will be the one to do it.
The city issued a final demand letter to the CPA directing its officials to remove their fence around the old Compania Maritima without a permit from the Office of the Building Officials (OBO).
“Kon dili sila molihok pagtangtang anang koral sa CPA, ako maoy motangtang ana,†the angry mayor told the reporters.
The CPA is planning to sell the properties near the Compania Maritima to prospective buyers who intend to develop the place for commercial purposes.
“Ato pa na nga tan-awon kon sila ba’y tag-iya anang yutaa,†said the mayor.
The CPA has already stopped the installation of metal fences around the property pending the resolution of the issue.
OBO chief Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez told CPA Legal Officer Yusop Uckung that it is provided in the National Building Code that all government agencies and instrumentalities are not exempted from securing permit from OBO for any infrastructure projects.
But Uckung stood pat on his argument that Republic Act 7621, the law that created the Cebu Port Authority, empowered the CPA to build infrastructure projects within the port zone even without permits from local government units.
The National Building Code of the Philippines provides that “no person, firm or corporation, including any agency or instrumentality of the government shall erect, construct, alter, reppair, move, convert —without first obtaining a building permit from OBO.†— (FREEMAN)
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