10/28/2011
The Quezon City (QC) mayor
has a P500-million pork barrel while every city councilor has a
P44-million annual budget. These are over and above the city’s entire
budget of P2.7 billion per annum. QC already has one of the highest tax
structures in the country. Its residence certificate tax alone is 10
times higher than Makati’s. And even as those in city hall officialdom
claim to be pro-poor — the reason they green-lighted this controversial
Socialized Housing Tax (SHT) ordinance last Oct. 25 — QC has one of the
highest employment taxes in the country.
Quezon City has
ordinances taxing everything, including the office coffee maker. It has
a tax on household water pumps even if the homeowner, not the local
government, has invested in its drilling, installation, and procurement
(notwithstanding the fact that the water pump is to be situated within
his own property). It has an environmental tax but with no environmental
services. It taxes fast food outlets operating in malls that already
pay environmental service fees — charges which are then passed on to the
mall’s tenants — thereby illegally taxing these small stall owners
twice. And the list goes on.
Unfortunately, QC has been virtually
under the same city administration since Edsa II; it is expected to
continue through several more terms unless its citizens wake up to the
truth about the corrupt dynasty that has entrenched itself in city hall.
Although
2010 brought in a change of name in the Mayor’s Office, with the
electoral victory of the former vice mayor, comedian Herbert “Bistek”
Bautista, for all intents and purposes, the ancien régime continues not
only because a very young daughter of the previous mayor is now
Bautista’s vice but primarily because the old boys of Sonny Belmonte
continue to “rule the roost.”
For instance, the former city
treasurer, touted as having generated a P6.5-billion budget surplus, is
now the city administrator; while behind the scenes is Taddy Palma whose
name elicits from QC Circle locators a raised hand with thumb and
middle finger formed into a circle.
In the last elections where
the former mayor campaigned for his congressional seat, media were
flooded with glowing reports of his surplus of P6.5 billion in the
city’s coffers. This one from the Philippine Star, dated June 20, 2010
by Reiner Padua, said, “After nine years of being mayor of Quezon City,
congressman-elect Feliciano Belmonte Jr. will be leaving the city
government with P6.5-billion cash on hand and in banks.”
Yeah, right!
If
there is this surplus in Quezon City trumpeted just a little over a
year ago, then why did current Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor
Josefina Belmonte, and the city council deem it necessary to pass a new
real estate tax of P180 million or so, purportedly for “socialized
housing” or SHT?
When confronted by this P6.5-billion surplus
claim, Mayor Bautista simply denies its existence or says that the
entire amount has already been used up for salaries and whatnot — which
is highly improbable.
So who is lying, Mayor Bautista or the
former mayor and his city treasurer, now administrator Vic Endriga? Can
the vice mayor-daughter of Belmonte tell us who the liar is among them?
Mayor
Bautista, along with his political caboodle in Quezon City, says the
tax is a “measly” 0.05 percent of every P100,000 assessed value of real
estate property; but that is deceptive and misleading to the extreme.
Based
on the “basic real estate tax” for urban centers in Metro Manila of 2
percent, the tax hike approved by the current QC administration adds
0.05 percent for every P100,000 of assessed value, which means P5,000 in
SHT for a P1-million property. This is aside from the P20,000
representing the 2-percent basic tax, which means that the SHT is
actually an increase of 20 percent or more!
Many Quezon City civic
leaders have gone to the city council hearing to oppose this, with city
officials, particularly councilors, not being able to give sufficient
and rational justification for the measure. One of the most vehement in
imposing this tax hike is the “pro-poor” 4th District Councilor Edcel
“Grex” Lagman Jr., son of a prominent House apologist for Gloria Arroyo,
leading QC residents and homeowners to shake their heads and say, “So
young, so c...”
Then, as if to assuage the anger of taxpayers, the city council promises to rebate this exaction five years later — liars all!
If
the city council and administration want to do something right for a
change, they can begin by investigating the P6.5-billion surplus of
Belmonte that is now nowhere to be found. They should also cleanse
themselves of the reeking stink from the 3,000 ghost employees that the
new Commission on Audit uncovered in city councilors’ payrolls,
amounting to over P200 million a year (which investigation was triggered
by our July 15 “Quezon City CoA-llusion?” article).
Further, the
city council should investigate the North Triangle urban poor relocation
scandal involving hundreds of millions and the “favorite contractor” of
Belmonte and a former FVR Finance man alleged to have headed the “QC
government’s real property pilferage.”
But instead of doing good
for QC residents who are filling their city’s coffers with tax payments,
these local politicians prefer to keep milking the city’s taxpayers for
their imagined “pro-poor” socialized housing program, which is just an
excuse for more graft.
Quezon City residents interested in
studying the abuse of their city’s taxes can visit
http://www.better-qc.org set up by QC anti-graft crusaders Johnny Chang,
Rod Kapunan, Andy Rosales, et al. We understand that court suits are
already being prepared against this tax hike. Maybe they might as well
consider “Occupy QC Hall” very soon.
(Tune in to Sulo ng
Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk
News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on
GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 — this week: “Quezon City Homeowners Oppose
20% Real Estate Tax Hike;” visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for
our articles plus TV and radio archives)
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111028com5.html
