ANGELES CITY – The Supreme Court’s decision upholding the establishment of 16 more cities in the country has decreased this city’s internal revenue allotment (IRA) by P40 million, but Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan is unperturbed.
Pamintuan, who assumed post last year amid bankruptcy and deficits, said the local economy’s “significant turnaround” has now made the city government less dependent on IRA.
“Our daily cash balance has never gone below P100 million despite the inherited debt of P17 million in electric bills alone,” he said.
He reported that apart from pushing revenue-raising programs, the local economy’s health was also been boosted by trimming down excesses in city hall’s “job order” workforce, mostly ghost employees, by about 65 percent.
Pamintuan said employees’ contributions to the Government Service Insurance Corp. and Pag-Ibig are now regularly remitted.
Last June, the Supreme Court finally junked the motion for reconsideration filed by the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) against the declaration of 16 municipalities into cities. The LCP maintained the 16 towns were not qualified.
The national government now has to divide the IRA among more cities, thus reducing the shares of the older cities.
Pamintuan said that while Angeles is now entitled to P40 million less IRA, it can still pursue local projects efficiently.
Noting the daily cash balance of no less than P100 million, the city government now has a cash position of P297 million, he said.
Pamintuan also estimated the city government’s actual income at P967 million, including P410 million worth of local taxes generated from July last year up to last May.
This city’s garbage problem, which arose in 2009 after the city government failed to pay dues to a sanitary landfill operator in Capas, Tarlac, has been solved after Pamintuan renegotiated terms with the landfill management.
He said this resulted in the hauling of some 1,117 truckloads of garbage which had accumulated in this city’s materials recovery facility, with the wastes being disposed of at the landfill.
The city government’s P19 million contract with the landfill has also been reduced amid an adjustment in fees from P1,500 per ton to only P1,300. This, the mayor said, would lead to savings of P600,000 monthly.
