Newly elected execs slam Marikina's post-poll tax cuts

MANILA, Philippines - Marikina mayor-elect Del de Guzman and vice mayor-elect Fabian Cadiz questioned yesterday the tax cuts and tax relief imposed by the incumbent city council after the May 10 polls.

Cadiz said a real property tax discount resolution, approved after the city was devastated by flash floods in September last year, is supposed to lapse at the end of this month but was extended after the May elections to the end of 2013.

 “The incoming administration will be handicapped because P300 million annual income will be lost plus we will be paying interest to the outstanding bank loan of the present administration,” said Cadiz.

When De Guzman and Cadiz assume their posts on July 1, at least 1,000 casual employees of the city government would be relieved because of the absence of funds to retain them.

Cadiz accused the administration of incumbent Mayor Marides Fernando of deliberately passing the council resolution to cripple the leadership of De Guzman after incumbent Vice Mayor Marion Andres, a protégée of Fernando, lost to De Guzman by a wide margin.

But Fernando said politics has nothing to do with the extended tax relief as she assured De Guzman’s camp that she has no plans to make a political comeback in the city in the next elections.

“Anyway, the people are asking for a 60 percent tax relief for them to recover from the devastations brought about by (tropical storm) ‘Ondoy’ but we settled for 50 percent so as not to affect the delivery of other services to the residents,” Mayor Fernando said.

She claimed she left at least P1.2 billion in city’s coffers, which is enough for a one-year budget. “The city is very healthy financially. I expect Del (De Guzman) to be at the helm of the city beyond 2013, so it is now up to him to raise funds for the city,” she said. 

Cadiz said the budget left in the city coffers for 2010 is only for salaries and wages of regular employees but millions of pesos for infrastructure and education have been spent by Fernando’s administration.

He said the internal revenue allotment (IRA) contribution for the city’s 16 barangays will be lessened by about P4 million to P10 million per barangay because they have been allocated by the present administration.

Allies of De Guzman also complained about the “tax holiday” given, also after the May elections, by the Fernando administration to top city investors. The tax holiday extension could reach about P100 million.

They also said the garbage fee being collected by the city government to the big establishments had been reduced also by 50 percent, in another council resolution. The total annual income for the city from garbage fees could reach to about P60 million.