City Assessor: Entice investors, not scare them

Should the City of Cebu increase the Real Property taxes is the question begging for an answer. But if Assistant City Assessor Liezl Gonzaga had her way, she would implement a general revision of the tax assessment level of properties for the simple reason that the last time that the City of Cebu revised its tax assessment was in the year 2006. This is the problem with our bureaucrats. They just want to implement those increases because it's been sometime that this was done without considering the question whether the public is ready to implement those realty tax increases.

Can the Cebu City residents afford to pay those planned increases in taxes? Sure the law states that there should be a revision of realty taxes every three years. But since it's been six years already, this is not a matter of increasing the realty taxes just for the sake of increasing it. No doubt it is very easy to increase realty taxes but is the City of Cebu prepared for the consequences of this increase?

Let me warn you of what happened many years ago when City Hall increased the realty taxes, it became a boon to the City of Mandaue, which was the sole beneficiary of that increase because many businesses migrated there. If you recall, Norkis Trading started in Cebu City in the 60s but moved to Mandaue after a few years because of realty taxes. If you didn't notice, the Chevrolet dealer that used to be in Banilad, Cebu City moved also to Mandaue Highway a couple of years ago and I'm sure it is due to high taxes in Cebu City. What Cebu City ought to do is find ways to attract those businesses back to Cebu City, then they'll earn more revenues.

What the City of Cebu ought to do is increase taxes on raw land along the major or secondary roads. These are empty lands that do not contribute to the growing economy of Cebu City. I can still see a lot of them along the main thoroughfares. But at least on the positive side, no less than Mayor Michael Rama is against this proposed increase and believes that collection efficiency should be prioritized.

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Finally, after weeks of agonizing wait, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed the involvement of several lawmakers in the alleged pork barrel scam that has been exposed by the media in the past several weeks now. But she is not yet naming names. The Justice Secretary was adamant that there will be no sacred cows in the filing of these cases which we expect her to do in the next few weeks. Hmmm, sounds interesting.

The DoJ Secretary wanted to emphasize to the public that the NBI investigation is non-partisan and will not take any political color. But then, the DoJ Secretary has only given us words… and words as you know can be twisted and let me tell you that in many past incidents, the DoJ Secretary gave so many assurances but these were eventually forgotten. So we'll take this statement of our Justice Secretary with a grain of salt.

Speaking about “sacred cows,” this brings us to the question about the much-awaited graft case filed in the Sandiganbayan against former Congresswoman Clavel Asas Martinez and her son Mayor Tining Martinez of Bogo City. Aren't they considered “sacred cows” since their warrant of arrest was returned? They may deny that their being part of the Liberal Party (LP) was not the reason why that warrant was quashed.

So what was the reason then? Cebuanos are looking closely at this particular case because it is uncannily similar to the P10 billion scam, which used NGOs to funnel public funds from the Priority Assistance Development Fund (PDAF) into the pockets of corrupt officials. More so that this case has already taken 10 years to be filed.

Meanwhile, The Freeman headline yesterday about the Supreme Court's (SC) confirmation of a Commission on Audit (COA) report finding four officials of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMM) liable for the misuse of P3.4 million in pork barrel funds from former Rep. Tony Cuenco is yet another proof that when it comes to corruption cases, it is usually the small fry that gets convicted and thrown in jail. The big fish, especially those belonging to the political elite, walk free.

Perhaps this is the reason why no less than Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle was in near tears when he spoke at the University of Santo Tomas asking for an in-depth and impartial investigation of the P10-billion scam. I'm sure many Filipinos are pained deep inside that this highly anomalous scam was perpetrated by powerful politicians who use questionable NGOs in order to funnel the people's money into their personal account, totally disregarding that many Filipinos live in dire poverty. Perhaps Cardinal Tagle was hurt that this is happening to an Aquino Presidency, as he is known to be so close with the Aquino family.

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