Rama to Pursue Plans to Purchase Barge for Fire Incidents in Coastal Barangays

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama will pursue his plan to purchase a barge to be equipped by him with powerful water pump that could be used in fire fighting operations during fires in coastal barangays.

The mayor had proposed a P50 million allocation in 2012 Annual Budget for the purchase of a barge, but the amount has been removed by the Cebu City Council when they approved the last year’s budget.

The city legislators described Rama’s plan to spend P50 million just to buy a barge as a waste of taxpayer’s money.

But when fire broke out and razed several residential houses in the slum areas of Barangay Ermita last Saturday, Rama had found a reason to attack the city legislators.

According to Rama if the City Council had approved his proposed budget for the purchase of a barge, the fire that erupted in Sitio Bato, Ermita may not quickly spread out.

“Kon gitugotan pa kita nga makapalit sa barge nagamit na unta pagkasunog sa Sitio Bato sa Barangay Ermita. Unsaon pangbabag ra man sa mga project ang ilang nakamaohan,” Rama said.

Those houses razed by fire were just made of light materials and it easily went up in smoke and the fire fighters had nothing to do because they could not penetrate to the area where the fire started.

Rama has created a task force last Monday composed of representatives from the various City Hall departments for them to coordinate with the fire victims for the reblocking of the place, including the construction of a wide access road.

The mayor is expecting that some persons will oppose to his order to reblock the area, but he said reblocking the area will give more advantage to the people as what the residents of T. Villa and F. Villa Streets in Barangay T. Padilla when their place was also hit by a fire almost two years ago.