Sept. 9-15, 2010
Tagum City Mayor Rey Uy said that he wanted to help Mati and volunteer to share the best experiences of Tagum City government in increasing income, the requirement where Mati is knocked out from becoming a city.
Mati is one of the 16 cities that were finally declared by the Supreme Court in its recent decision to go back as municipalities.
“Dili ta babag sa kalambuon sa Mati ug daghan tang mapaambit sa ila,” said the mayor in an interview with the Valley & City Chronicle.
He said that with the Supreme Court’s final decision Tagum City would no longer have a P32-million cut of a budget from its Internal Revenue Allotment.
But he said he sympathized with the good quest of Mati local government under the administration of Mayor Michelle Rabat saying that they only have to comply with what the local government code requires before a municipality becomes a city.
The Supreme Court recently ruled with finality that cityhood could not be made via congressional act but via the amended local government code (LGC), which requires P100-million income of the local government, 100 square kilometer of land area and 150,000 population for a town to become a city. Mati failed to meet the income requirement.
In the High Court’s final decision, it ruled that the Constitution is clear that the creation of local government units (LGUs) must follow the criteria established in the LGC and not in any other law. Republic Act No. 9009 increased the income requirement for cityhood from P20 million to P100 million in sec. 450 of the Local Government Code (LGC).
Earlier, Rabat said that the criteria of P100 million “is definitely difficult to achieve” and that Mati’s “local industry is not enough to push us for that income requirement.”
Within the series of three terms of Uy, including his current third term, the city government is now close to becoming billionaire in terms of income earned from local and national sources, said City Treasurer Edgar De Guzman in previous interview.
“We’re close to becoming a billionaire in the next two to three years from now,” he said.
He said that the city government “is so liquid” in income as in 2008 it already earned more than P400 million in local taxes and fees, and more than P400 million in Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share from the national government.
He added that the city government under Uy’ s administration has pushed in the recent years increases of its local income more than the rates of increases of IRA resulting to the overall increases of the total income.
“We are just innovative to generate more income that is flowed back for the development of the city such as the many visible infrastructures that marked the administration of Mayor Uy,” De Guzman said.
He added that Uy administration has managed to introduce “new local taxes and fees” that “substantially increased” local sources of city’s income.
“Some local government units in fact have replicated our experience in innovating to raise our local revenues, and show to the people that their taxes are moving,” De Guzman said.
For Tagum City, the real property taxes in gross receipts has maintained through the recent years as a top local revenue earning source with P81 million share in 2009, and contributing next were business tax and income from city’s various economic enterprises. (RUN/cha monforte)
Oyo says Metro Gaisano tells of great investors’ confidence to Tagum City
The P280-million worth of investment poured by the Gaisano company for its newest Metro Gaisano Mall that is being constructed right at the hubpoint along the national highway of Tagum City speaks of the great confidence of investors to the city of Tagum as a good investment haven in this part of the country, said second-termer City Councilor De Carlo “Oyo” Uy.
He said that the pouring in of such great amount to Tagum City by big investors and capitalists was not reached out of quick decision but out of careful business and market studies.
“They (investors) could not have come up with that decision without feasibility studies or computations on return on investments and considerations on the local setting,” he added.
He advanced that certainly new investors to the city “have that trust on the good peace and order of Tagum” as well as “ on the way the city governance is being handled and run” which reinforce the good investment environment in the city.
He said that Metro Gaisano’s rise is a welcome development given the employment that its construction has given to the locals and its future contribution of generating more money in circulation when shoppers from neighboring provinces flock in droves to the yet biggest mall in the city.
Councilor Uy is currently the chairman of the finance committee and the tourism committee. Before he was first elected as city councilor for his first term in 2007 polls, he is already the president and general manager of Metro Shuttle – Davao Reyer Transport Services. He is a graduate of business management at La Salle University in Manila.
Pundits said that Oyo is being groomed to be the next city mayor by his father Mayor Rey Uy, who is on his current last and third term.
Presently, Metro Gaisano, which would have modern cinemas, is being constructed on observed fast pace in 24-man hour works to beat the deadline of launching its first level for soft opening in time with Tagum’s parochial fiesta of patron saint Christ the King on November 21.
Meanwhile, along the Tagum-Mati highway, another big mall is also undergoing construction. Sources said it would be Mall 168 of mainland Chinese capitalists and would sell “seconds”, the cheap China made garments and assorted products similar to those sold in the Chinatown at Uyanguren vicinity in Davao City. (Rural Urban News/Cha Monforte)
Filed under: malls in tagum, malls in tagum
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