THE search is on.

The new city administration, following orders from City Administrator Alvin Fernandez, has started the investigation and search for the missing steel bars and trusses retrieved from the burnt Bugnay Market located in front of the city hall.

The city administrator issued a memorandum to City Engineer Virginia Rosario last August 14, directing her to provide information within 72 hours as to the whereabouts of the steel bars and trusses.

Fernandez previously made a similar inquiry from Rosario but was told to direct his question to one Robert Sison, an alleged favored contractor under the Lim administration.

According to the former vice mayor, the order is a follow up to the inquiry he made when he was still presiding officer of the city council.

Apparently, the previous administration under Mayor Benjamin Lim did not leave any paper trail as to the possible location nor what had been done with the steel bars and trusses.

Earlier, Rosario attested that it was Sison who was responsible for the demolition of the Bugnay Market rubble.

Sison was called by the city council to appear before the inquiry but his lawyer invoked his right to ignore any invitation coming from the council, the latter having no subpoena power, unlike Congress.

And when then City Legal officer Geraldine Baniqued was asked by Fernandez about her knowledge of the missing materials during a city council session, she offered no clue and simply replied she was not the property custodian of  the city.

City Administrator Fernandez is hoping that the city government will finally locate about the missing steel bars and trusses in the new investigation.

The steel bars and trusses were all that were left of the Bugnay Market after it was gutted in 2004 but these disappeared without any trace after the clearing operations of the premises.

AGENCIES

Meanwhile, City Legal Officer George Mejia said he has also been directed by Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr.  to conduct an investigation on the hiring by the past city administration of three different security agencies.

There different agencies are assigned at  the city hall, another at Malimgas Market and the third one at the city plaza, an arrangement that Mejia said is quite unusual.

He said another service contract likely to be placed under scrutiny is the contract for the maintenance of the lone escalator at the Malimgas Market.—LM

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