Dagupan SP denies Bangus Fest 2011 of funding

DAGUPAN CITY – The Bangus Festival 2011 executive committee will have
to depend on self-initiated funding after the Sangguniang Panlungsod
(SP) disapproved the budget allocated for the tourism and cultural
heritage program of the city.
This year’s tourism and cultural heritage program was
supposed to have a budget of P1 million each for a total of P2
million, but the SP disapproved the proposed budget.
The Ordinance Authorizing the Annual Budget of City
Government of Dagupan for Fiscal Year 2011 in the Total Amount of
P487,116,296.73 covering the Various Expenditures for the Operation of
the Dagupan City Government for Fiscal Year 2011, showed that the two items have zero budget.
It was observed, however, that for the last three
years, the city has been funding the festival especially during the
time when Vice Mayor Belen T. Fernandez was the executive chairman in
the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Bangus Festivals. Those years, city spent a total
of P10,375,000 million...

Proprietary educational institutions should pay taxes

The “imbroglio” between the acrimonious owners of colleges and universities and Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim should be juxtaposed with an observation by a BIR lawyer assigned at the Region 1 Office.

I asked him whether these livid owners are not obligated to pay taxes as they want to impress to the public.

This top tax executive said that proprietary (profit-seeking) educational institutions are not exempted.

He declared that each of them should pay a tax of ten percent (10%) of their taxable income.

He added that if the gross income from their unrelated trade, business, or other activity exceeds fifty percent (50%) of the total gross income derived by such education institutions or hospitals from all sources, the tax prescribed in Subsection (A) (Income of Domestic Corporation which is 30% annually) shall be imposed on the entire taxable income. He explained that “unrelated trade, business, or other activity” means any trade, business, or other activity, the conduct of which is not substantially related to the exercise or performance by such educational institution or hospital of its primary purposes or function.

He quoted this opinion from Sub-Paragraph B, Section 27 of the National Internal Revenue Code of the Philippines. 

***

What this top tax honcho explained to me are taxes that are being required in the national level for these rambunctious owners of educational institutions in Dagupan. Likewise, this lowly writer (who like to associate with either fake or wannabe media men) opined that this requirement is analogous also with the requirements being levied to them by the City government.

These are the Real Property Tax, and the Business Tax that they do not want to pay.

But how come some of these complainant owners paid their local tax dues last year when they were bellyaching to all and sundry that they are not required by law to pay?

***

My Marlboro-ciggie-chomping friend Senator Chiz Escudero decried the torture done by military men after he saw it at YouTube:

“How can we call for an end to the culture of impunity among our government agents dealing with people in government custody when they also do it to their very own men?”Escudero, chairs of both Committee on Justice and Human Rights and the National Defense and Securities, reacted.

Apologists of the military even defended it as communist propaganda and went to the extent of a mere “play actions.”

Ginawa pang “Showbiz”.

I watched some military documentary films at Discovery Channel recently on how the elite U.S Special Forces and Marine Recon were trained.

In that grueling 60 days training for Special Forces attended by officers and enlisted men, out of the more than 300 recruits, only 87 survived that hell. Survival means the right to don that “sacred” Special Forces badge that was pinned to their uniform by a highest ranked officer there without fanfare.

...

Scenario: Lim vetoes, as City Council looks for 2/3 votes

By Mario Mata

Was the legislated budget of P487 million for 2011 as compared to the preceding year’s P493 million the worst nightmare given by the City Council (Sangguniang Panlungsod) to Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim?

It depends how he can wiggle from it.

Since the 2011 P487 million legislated budget is already an approved ordinance, can Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim vetoes it?

How? By vetoing its entirety or select some items from it.

As a swivel-chair analyst wannabe, I bet he’ll do the second kind of vetoing.

Why?

1)      So he will not antagonize the employees of the city hall and the national government who are expecting a pay hike in consonance with the mandated national standardization law;

...

SP FINALLY GIVES NOD PROPOSED P568M CITY BUDGET CUT BY P80 MILLION

DAGUPAN CITY’s proposed P568 million budget for 2011 was finally approved in a special session last Wednesday after more than two months of protracted deliberations by the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP), but it was  severely cut by P80 million with the city mayor’s office’s budget drastically reduced by more than P22 million.

               By a vote of eight against the nay votes of the four minority members, the SP on motion of majority Councilor Luis Samson Jr. enacted Draft Ordinance No.-443 entitled “An Ordinance Authorizing the Annual Budget of City Government of Dagupan for Fiscal Year 2011 in the Total Amount of P487,116,296.73 Covering the Various Expenditures for the Operation of the Dagupan City Government for Fiscal Year 2011, and Appropriating the Necessary Funds for the Purpose.

              Under the approved budget, the maintenance and other operating expenditures of the city mayor’s office was slashed by P22,099,500 from the proposed budget of P35,444,729.08, which is higher only by more than P8 million compared to last year’s budget of P27,617,205 of the previous administration.

             On the local travelling expenses , the SP only approved P600,000 from the proposed P1 million; foreign travelling expenses, P600,000 from P1 million; training expenses, P600,000 from P700,000; office supplies expense, P800,000 from P1.8 million; gasoline, oil and lubricant – P2 million from P3.5 million; other supplies expenses, P400,000 from P600,000.

            Advertising expense was hacked by P400,000 from the proposed budget of P800,000. On printing and binding expenses, the approved budget is only half of the proposed P1 million.

            The mayor’s representation expense was also cut by P800,000 leaving only P700,000. On consultancy services, the proposed budget was sliced by P1,799,000.

            Donations amounting to P11,500,000, which is the same as last year’s approved budget was totally slashed depriving city hall employees of their quarterly rice ration.

            Confidential expenses were cut by P1.5 million while the proposed intelligence fund of P2 million was totally disapproved by the SP.

            The other regular offices affected by the big cut are the Public Order and Safety Office losing P480,000 in its proposed P600,000 budget for printing and binding expenses and another P100,000 from its proposed P200,000 on the purchase of additional motor vehicles.           

            The Waste Management Division Office’s proposed budget on gasoline, oil and lubricant was reduced to P2 million.

...

Mata cites women as home builders

DAGUPAN CITY - City Administrator Vlad Mata has cited the role of women in building a home and a family while addressing the seminar on the Magna Carta of Women and Community-Based Alternative Parental Care held at the Edades Hall of the city museum in celebration of the Women’s Month last Thursday.

            “We build our own homes and to build a home, we need to have a family and women to complete it, “Mata told the members of the Kalipi Ng Liping Pilipino from various barangays who attended the seminar sponsored by the City Social Welfare and Development Office in partnership with the city government and the Bangus Festival Executive Committee 2011.

               City Social Welfare and Development Office Officer – In – Charge Leila Natividad said that the seminar sought to remind women of their rights, roles and importance as part and parcel of the family and community.

                 Wilma Coquia, focal person and head of the Adoption Resource and Referral Unit of  the Department of Social and Welfare Development Field Office 1 lectured on the Magna Carta of Women and Community-Based Alternative Parental Care. (CIO – Jeeboy Paragas)

SP finally approves Dagupan budget

DAGUPAN CITY —After months of thorough scrutiny, the city council approved on Wednesday an ordinance authorizing a P487,116,296.73  budget which the majority members described as “reasonable and based on hearings they conducted”.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, presiding officer, said that the majority members came out with this amount after many questions were left unanswered, no specific programs were presented, and justifications not made on the proposed budget sought.

“Because they (department heads) have to justify, we listened and asked questions from them but if you noticed, some speakers couldn’t answer why they were asking such an amount,” Fernandez said.

She added that some department heads even snubbed some budget hearings, including the city administrator and members of the minority especially during their last hearing.

“We would like to ask many questions so we would be clarified but the problem is they didn’t show up,” Fernandez said.

This led the majority members to come up with a budget based on reviews made, she added.

Fernandez said they are playing their role to have check and balance and would want to ensure that funds requested would really go to the intended beneficiaries.

She said they were confronted with approving a budget without details presented.

Choosing to serve the people
Councilor Jeslito Seen, chairman of the Finance Committee said a special committee composed of all members of the Sanggunian was convened to study the budget. This gave the chairpersons of all the standing committees (such as health, peace and order, social welfare, public works) the opportunity to directly hear from the various city department heads their corresponding operations and budget justifications.

Seen said this eliminated the redundancy of repeating, in the session proper, the same questions and explanations already made in the committee level.

Discrepancies in the proposed budget were discovered again and again during the hearings and the City Mayor’s Office had to amend the proposed budget several times, Seen said.

He said the non-participation of several department heads from Feb 16 onwards despite due notice made it very difficult to study the budget proposals due to non-transparent funding purposes and the insufficiency of information on the previous and proposed projects, programs and activities of the city....

Thoughtless Extravagance, Amusement Tax

by Mario Mata

16 of this Ford Everest SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) were bought by the Provincial Government at P1.3 million apiece to be used by members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. Reports say they were bought without a bidding

Stadia in Dagupan City where Manila based artists usually hold their concert

Suddenly, Dagupenos have forgotten the nonfeasance of the City Council headed by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez on the P543 million 2011 city budget that should have been deliberated and passed in October 16 last year as mandated by Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code.

Suddenly, Dagupenos ‘ attention have been drawn to the overpriced Lucky Me Noodle, evaporated milk, and sugar whose priced were copied by some members of the Bids & Award Committee from the previous  Mayor Al S. Fernandez administration.

...

6 na taon na walang real property tax increase sa Alaminos

by Brando Cortez

 ALAM NA ALAM NATIN NA WALANG JUETENG SA ALAMINOS, pero ang hindi natin alam ay anim na taon na pala na walang real property tax increases sa Alaminos city.

Walang real property tax increase sa Alaminos City na pinamumunuan ni Mayor Hernani A. Braganza.

At kahit walang increase, taon taon tumataaas ang kanilang collection.

...

BSL SHARES LIGHT MOMENTS WITH REP. MARK

Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim (right) heartily laughs as he shares light moments with Fifth District Rep. Mark Cojuangco when the two leaders attended the recent Sate of the Province Address (SOPA ) of Gov. Amado T. Espino Jr. (CIO photo by Gryson de Venecia)

Thank God for Mayors Lim and Braganza

by Mario Mata
The scathing remarks thrown by our leaders to each other in Dagupan City were really a treat. The more they "badmouth" each other, the more Dagupan become an exciting place to live just like Benghazi in Libya.
Here some for the consumptions of my, ahem, readers here and abroad:
 “I could term Benjie (Lim, mayor of Dagupan) as ignorant for all the things that schools have done for the development of our city.  I think Benjie should not be so rash in condemning us because of the role we have in playing for the development of our city”- Atty Gonzalo Duque, President, Lyceum Northwestern University.
“Kung ignorante ako Atty. Duque, tingnan mo muna ‘yung binayaran mo kung tama. Hindi naman natin sinasabing hindi sila nagbabayad ng buwis kundi pag-aralan nating mabuti baka naman mas pwede tayong makapag-bigay ng tulong sa ating siyudad”- Mayor Benjie S. Lim.
It’s funny but the more the presidents of universities in Dagupan City open their mouth to media, the more they expose their pathetic selves to the public.
Mayor Lim should not be intimidated by the  smarting pronouncements of these executives.
Mayor Lim should know that he is standing on legal and moral ground vis-à-vis the welfare of the city.
If Phinma-run University of Pangasinan paid P2.1 million of Business Tax last year, these colleges should explain to the public and to the city hall why they should not be levied.
 ***
The justifications they were mouthing were ridiculous. They still have to convince us that they are exempted to pay their business tax based on the Constitution, Tax Code, and the Local Government Code.
The exemptions they were shouting at Lim were out-of-synch.
“Exhibit A” of their San Beda Case as decided by the Department of Finance is about exemption to the mayor’s permit.
“Exhibit B” of Marikina City Case is an ordinance signed into law in that city that exempts schools on their in their business tax.
 But for Christ sake! Marikina is not Dagupan City. These executives have to show the public a law or ordinance that exempts them to pay business taxes.
Lim should investigate them! The more they bark at Lim the more their grounds cracked. Lim should exploit his expose’ at his recent State of the City Address. This what the people want. They want to see who pays their dues, and who failed or maliciously withheld.
Enough of this hypocrisy!
***
Take for instance the move of Alaminos City Mayor Nani Braganza to open a state university in his city. Private school owners want his scalp. They denounced Nani by accusing him of undermining private colleges in Pangasinan and Dagupan City. They said government should not compete with their business
I could not understand.  For them to monopolize education with their prohibitive tuition fees at the expense of the poor who want to attend tertiary education?
Their rationale is not only preposterous, but an obvious insult to the intellect of even a high school graduate.
(You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/ or  contact me at mata_mario@yahoo.com.ph)

Dagupan has only one non-profit school- Olpindo

DAGUPAN CITY –There is only one school here that is operating as a non-stock, non-profit educational institution, which is duly exempted from paying business tax, according to One Stop Business Center manager Carmen Q. Olpindo.

Olpindo identified the institution as the Colegio De Dagupan “whose Articles of Incorporation is duly registered at the Securities and Exchange Commission,” she said.

Olpindo, however, clarified that Colegio De Dagupan is not exempted from paying regulatory fees such as mayor’s permit and sanitary permit, which is different from business tax and the operation of its canteen which has a gross sale of P3, 106,618 and an annual business tax of P18, 639.72.

Recently, three schools questioned the city government’s continued imposition of business tax on their institutions despite a tax exemption given them by the Department of Finance.

They cited Section 28(3), Article VI of the 1987 Constitution which provides that “charitable institutions, churches and parsonages or convents appurtenant thereto, non-profit cemeteries, and all lands, buildings and improvements, actually, directly and exclusively used for religious, charitable or educational purposes shall be exempt from taxation.”

Olpindo opined that educational institutions, which are only non-stock and non-profit, are exempted from paying the business tax.

“University of Luzon in their Articles of Incorporation is not a non-stock, non-profit institution that is why we asked them to pay their business tax of around P877, 127.36 based on their declared gross receipts or sales of P116, 950,048 in 2010,” she said.

University of Pangasinan, which is also not a non-stock, non-profit has declared a gross receipt or sale of P289, 055,172. Its annual business tax is P2, 167,913.80 and is paying a quarterly tax of P541, 978.45.

The Lyceum Northwestern University declared a gross receipt/sale of P36, 006,084.15 with an annual business tax of P270, 045.64 or quarterly tax of P67, 511.41. (CIO)