CH temporarily moves finance services

CEBU, Philippines — Services of the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office will be temporarily transferred at SM City Cebu starting on Monday, July 29, to give way to the renovation of the mayor’s office on the ground floor of the City Hall building.

Acting city treasurer Atty. Jerone Castillo said they would be holding office temporarily at the space previously occupied by the Visayan Electric Company.

“The reason that we will (be) transferring is because the first floor will become the mayor’s office,” Castillo said.

Castillo said that all transactions of the business tax division, real property tax division, cash receipts division, business permits, and licensing offices will be done at SM City until the renovation is completed.

Castillo also announced yesterday that they would have a Cebu City Finance Center soon. He said it is the city’s dream to have a financial center to house all finance-related offices like the treasury, assessor, accounting, and budget.

Castillo added that they want to establish system-based governance by developing an integrated computer system connecting the data from the treasurer to the assessor, assessor to accounting, and treasury to accounting.

The city government is eyeing the replication of the two buildings demolished on what used to be Kawit Island at the South Road Properties to be the city’s finance center.

The Sugbo and the Senior Citizen’s Buildings on Kawit Island were demolished by the Universal Hotel Resorts Incorporated (UHRI), a Gokongwei-led company, to give way to a multi-billion peso development project in the area.

UHRI signed a joint venture agreement with the Cebu City government through the previous administration. Part of the agreement was to replicate the two buildings affected by the project. — Jebert A. Sarsonas CNU Intern, FPL (FREEMAN)