Zamora bares anomalies in SJ government

MANILA, Philippines – San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora yesterday bared several anomalous transactions made during the term of his predecessor, Guia Gomez, which he said they unearthed in his first 100 days in office.

Zamora, in his first state of the city address marking his first 100 days as mayor, said that among these anomalies is the San Juan Medical Center, a P500-million project that was supposed to be finished by May 11.

Citing a Commission on Audit assessment, he said the hospital is only 60 percent complete.

The city treasurer also reported a total of P3,525,051 in undeclared remittances from the hospital. Zamora said corrupt officials remit only part of the hospital fees from patients to the local treasury.

He also bared a variation order for the construction of the city hall that was equivalent to 32 percent or P167 million of the total project cost of P520 million, when it should only be 10 percent, based on the government procurement law.

Zamora said he has ordered a case buildup against the people responsible for the anomalies but noted that it is too early to tell whether his predecessor was involved.

He also said the past administration collected only P193,700 in rental fees from the San Juan Gym for 2018 while in his three months in office, the city government has collected P659,000 in rental fees.

Zamora said a total of P736 million in business taxes were not collected because the books of accounts of several large business taxpayers were not examined in 2017 and 2018.

He also scored the procurement of a P40-million spider backhoe, which has been idle as it does not fit in the waterways and could not go down the creeks and rivers of San Juan.