With Unstable Roof Over Their Heads, Dads Told to Vacate City Council Building

Jun. 28, 2006

By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — A councilor has raised alarm about the safety of the City Council building, noting the danger it now poses because of the tremors that have been regularly occurring in the past days.

Councilo Nilo Abellera, in Tuesdays session, suggested that they hold the sessions in safer locations, such as in the barangay (village) halls out of town, until the building is fixed and declared safe.

“Above us, without denial, is a project that has remained unfinished, unresolved and unsolved,” Abellera said, referring to the building.

Some months ago, an expert on structural design told the councilors that the building was unsafe. Part of the reason was the construction of a roof deck that remains unfinished.

Abellera said that occupants of the building should now consider vacating it because they “would have to bear the brunt with uncertainty.”

“Of course, the call to safety is not only for the vice mayor, the councilors and their respective staffs. It also extends to those who are similarly housed under the weight of a roof deck that, with each deteriorating day, may finally become the dread nobody is expecting,” Abellera said in his privilege speech.

Aside from the safety concern, Abellera pointed out that holding sessions in the communities could be a form of reaching out to their constituents. Besides, he said, this is something that had been done in the past. (Cheryll D. Fiel/davaotoday.com)

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