CEBU, Philippines - Mandaue City’s collection last year was P500 million short of its P2.1 billion target, the City Treasurer’s Office said.
City Treasurer Lawyer Regal Oliva, however, said there is nothing to worry about because “we controlled our expenses” in the last quarter of the year to ensure they would not run deficit.
The city treasurer attributed the target miss to delinquent real property taxpayers.
“We have a lot of business establishments which have not renewed their permits,” he said, adding there are existing ones which have not also secured business permits.
Oliva also shared that the city continues to subsidize its supposed economic enterprises like the public market, the slaughterhouse, the sports complex and the hospital.
However, he said the public market is running in a deficit as there is also no public market to speak of after they abandoned the one at the back of the National Shrine of St. Joseph following the 7.2-magnitude earthquake in 2013.
Oliva said this means that the city has kept on subsidizing market operations even if only little is collected from stalls and other market fees. As a result, he said they have lowered the target collection for the market to avoid deficit.
As for the Mandaue City Hospital, it had a deficit of P7.8 million last year, which Oliva said is expected as it is for social services.
“It’s not really a deficit that we are in danger. Alkanse man gyud na kay social services. I give them a target of P20 million. Target lang, og di gyud makaya ba…So by the time nga July na, we look at their collection, kung naa pa sila sa P4 million, then we start telling them you better tighten your belts, don’t spend beyond your means,” he said.
The city is subsidizing the hospital P15 million every year, excluding the budget for the personnel’s wages and maintenance of the facility. Part of the subsidy also goes to its annual spending of P27 million, which is bloated by medicine expenses.
For the city’s abattoir, Oliva said he has already advised Mayor Jonas Cortes to privatize it to save the city’s funds. Last year, its operations resulted to a P17 million deficit.
“It should have been closed or run by a private company. We have had talks with several firms, wa pa’y formalities. My recommendation to the mayor is to give it to (a particular private firm), naa man na sila’y slaughterhouse, then they will give us percentage. (As of late), wa pa’y na-reach nga agreement,” he said.
Despite the deficits in some line items, the city expects a surplus of not more than P20 million for last year, said Oliva.
For this year, Oliva has pegged the target collection at P2.7 billion. (FREEMAN)