Paint Marks For City-owned Vehicles

Because of some reports that Cebu City-owned vehicles that were issued to the barangay officials are being used for personal purposes, the Office of the Mayor has decided that the word ‘FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY’ shall be painted on both sides of the vehicles.

While most of the barangay-issued vehicles already bears the word “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY” but these are only made of stickers that can be easily remove anytime once the vehicles will be used for personal purposes.

Philipp Zafra, chief of staff of the Office of the Mayor, also warned the barangay officials not to remove the original plates of the vehicles because it is illegal and the vehicles can be impounded.

The report was that the original plate numbers and the For Official Use Only markings of the Toyota Hilux vehicle that was issued to the barangay captain of Mabini have been removed.

The vehicle issued to Barangay Captain Rey Oybenes has been used when he and his girlfriend Rohama Luague, a City Hall employee, travelled from the city to the Trans-Central highway in the mountain barangays of the city where she was killed.

After killing her lover, Oybenes drove the vehicle from Barangay Cansumoroy, Balamban where he dumped the woman’s body into a cliff, to a place at Sitio Tigbao in Talamban where he committed suicide.

According to Zafra, the existing order is that once the city and barangay vehicles will get its fuel supply at the city’s fuel depot at the South Road Properties (SRP) these will be marked with FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY with the use of paint.

“Duna na sila’y giandam nga spray paint para imarka kay aron pagsiguro nga dili na gayud masayon-sayon lang sa pagtangtang,” Zafra said.

City Hall General Service Office (GSO) head Rolando Ardoza said they cannot always monitor the activities of those persons who had been issued with city-owned vehicles.