City's top taxpayers awarded

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government Awarded 70 individuals, business establishments and other entities for religiously paying their taxes and for contributing to City Hall’s efficient tax collection.

The 70 awardees are comprised of 20 business establishments, 20 real property firms, 10 barangays from north and south district who topped in terms of real property tax collection, five fish vendors who are religiously paying their taxes, five market vendors, top four Philippine Economic Zone Authority-registered business establishments, three suppliers of goods and services and three suppliers of infrastructure projects.

They bested other taxpayers in terms of promptness and honesty in paying their taxes to the city.

Awarded last night at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino Pacific Grand Ballroom were the top 20 business establishments namely the SM Prime Holdings, Vicsal Development Corp., Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Freemont Foods Corp., Waterfront Hotel and Casino-Cebu City, Therma Luzon Inc., Visayan Electric Company, Golden Arches Development Corp., Cebu Private Power Corp., Cebu Holdings Inc., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., Cebu City Marriott Hotel, Cebu Central Realty Corp., Multi-Stores Corp., Prulife Insurance Corp., Cebu Leisure Company Inc., Sykes Asia Inc., Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp., Bank of the Philippine Islands and Land Bank of the Philippines.

The top 20 real property taxpayers of 2011 are Five Power Venture Development Corp., Manila Midtown Hotel and Land, Eduard/Edward/Eduardo Kokseng, Skyrise Realty & Development Corp., J. Kings & Sons Co. Inc., Ayala Center Cebu, SM Mega Prime Holdings Inc., Cebu Private Power Corp., Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp., Cebu Insular Hotel Co., Gaisano Metro Ayala, Waterfront Phils. Inc., Casino Español de Cebu, Robinsons Land Corp., Lucky Group (GCM), Cebu Property Ventures & Development, Bigfoot Palms Inc., Jovima Management and Development Corp., Cebu Central Realty Corp. and Redtail Ventures Fund.

The 10 barangays that topped the real property collections are north district barangays Lahug, Apas, Luz, Kamputhaw, and Kasambagan and from the south district Guadalupe, Labangon, Tisa, Punta Princesa and Quiot.

The top four PEZA-registered establishments are the Lexmark Research and Development Corp., Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corp., Primary Properties Corp. and Dash Engineering Philippines Inc.

The top three suppliers of goods and services are the Visayan Electric Company Inc., Pasajero Motors and the Phil. Asia Resources & Development Corp.

The top three suppliers for infrastructure projects are Dakay Construction, Geety Realty and Development Corp. and Win Construction.

The top five fish vendors are Francisco de Gracia, Kathren Maranga, Adela Cabasa, Ronald Patalinghug and Angelita Fernandez while the top five market vendors are Lydia Mendoza, Teresita Gonzaga and Corazon Sepra, Lilia Pagador and Tristan Pepito. Mendoza, Gonzaga and Sepra were also last year’s awardees.

The awarding of taxpayers was supposed to be held last July but was delayed after the former city treasurer was recalled by Bureau of Local Government and Finance.

The budget for the activity was also cut from the original proposal of P2.3 million to P1.2 million.

Last year, the city had 210 awardees. This year organizers did not include awarding CTO employees who supported the revenue generation program of the treasurer’s office. There were 30 employees awarded last year.

The top income generating departments of city hall were also not included this year. The top barangays were also reduced to 10 from 30 last year.

In his speech Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama credited taxpayers for the well-lit city streets and for the now beautiful Osmeña Boulevard. He also commended the taxpayers from the private sector who have been helping the city government in various programs and projects through the private-public-partnership.

“To our very strong and supportive private sector, I guarantee you that our administration will work and will set aside politics for public service. So taxpayers, believe in your government,” Rama said.

He urged the private sector to continue to cooperate with the government by paying their taxes religiously and by involving themselves in finding the solution to the concerns of the community and the city.

Rama also assured that the issuance of business permit can be done in 30 minutes. He said the City Treasurer’s Office is now streamlining the process to make the application for business permit easier for businessmen. — /BRP