ANGELES CITY – Newly elected Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan assumed post in a city hall that has turned out to be a microcosm of problems Pres. Benigno Aquino III found himself facing in Malacañang: a huge deficit, questionable appointments of employees, and uncertainties on the true state of the city government.
He also confirmed cases of graft and corruption, including the dispersal of piglets that ridiculously cost P100,000 each.
But while Aquino ordered scrapping the use of “wang wang” or sirens with flashing lights on vehicles on roads, Pamintuan was faced with the bigger problem of not having any official vehicle at all. He arrived at his inaugural at city hall in his own car, after his predecessor, former Mayor Francis Nepomuceno, donated all 27 relatively new brand new vehicles of the city government to various beneficiaries after the last May 10 polls.
In his inaugural speech, Pamintuan also noted the questionable employment of some 3,000 “job order” personnel receiving monthly salaries averaging P6,000 each per month or about P21 million monthly.
He noted, however, that only a few people withdrew the salaries of most of these personnel.
Initial probe conducted by Pamintuan’s team also uncovered the past administration’s “Women in Agriculture” project in which piglets distributed turned out to cost P100,000 each.
“Heads will roll,” Pamintuan said, while vowing to protect the security of tenure of employees who were not involved in anomalies.
Pamintuan, who was presidential adviser on external affairs during the Arroyo government, said that his new administration has already filed before the court a petition to nullify the deed of donations, although he noted that some beneficiaries have voluntarily returned the vehicles.
He lamented that “serious financial mismanagement” of the past city administration has led to a deficit that could amount to as much as P600 million.
Pamintuan lamented that because of the failure of his predecessor to cooperate with a transition team he had proposed after the polls, he has remained in the dark on many other aspects of the state of the city government.
But he has ordered “redirection” of some of the huge projects of the Nepomuceno administration, including the P812-million sports complex project in Barangay Mining.
Of this amount, some P600 million would come from a loan from the Philippine Veterans Bank.
Pamintuan said the loan is being renegotiated for the construction of a city college in the same site, as well as for the upgrading of the Ospital Ning Angeles.
In his inaugural speech in front of the city hall, Pamintuan said “first in the order is that the city hall needs to tighten it belt.”
“In this regard, we need to improve on our revenue generation and collection and curb graft and corruption related to the collection of taxes and levies, without passing the burden to our people in the form of increased and new taxes,” he said.
Pamintuan also vowed to make Angeles the “education capital for Central Luzon” with the establishment of the Angeles City College “which shall offer specialized courses and degrees that shall respond to the professional needs of the emerging mega-logistics hub within the Clark-Subic corridor.”
Pamintuan has been the chairman of the Arroyo government’s Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council.
He also promised to boost tourism in the city and “radically transform the otherwise honky-tonk district of Fields Avenue into a more wholesome tourism area.”
The new mayor also vowed to address the city’s P63-million debt to a sanitary landfill in Tarlac which already closed its doors to local wastes.
He also confirmed cases of graft and corruption, including the dispersal of piglets that ridiculously cost P100,000 each.
But while Aquino ordered scrapping the use of “wang wang” or sirens with flashing lights on vehicles on roads, Pamintuan was faced with the bigger problem of not having any official vehicle at all. He arrived at his inaugural at city hall in his own car, after his predecessor, former Mayor Francis Nepomuceno, donated all 27 relatively new brand new vehicles of the city government to various beneficiaries after the last May 10 polls.
In his inaugural speech, Pamintuan also noted the questionable employment of some 3,000 “job order” personnel receiving monthly salaries averaging P6,000 each per month or about P21 million monthly.
He noted, however, that only a few people withdrew the salaries of most of these personnel.
Initial probe conducted by Pamintuan’s team also uncovered the past administration’s “Women in Agriculture” project in which piglets distributed turned out to cost P100,000 each.
“Heads will roll,” Pamintuan said, while vowing to protect the security of tenure of employees who were not involved in anomalies.
Pamintuan, who was presidential adviser on external affairs during the Arroyo government, said that his new administration has already filed before the court a petition to nullify the deed of donations, although he noted that some beneficiaries have voluntarily returned the vehicles.
He lamented that “serious financial mismanagement” of the past city administration has led to a deficit that could amount to as much as P600 million.
Pamintuan lamented that because of the failure of his predecessor to cooperate with a transition team he had proposed after the polls, he has remained in the dark on many other aspects of the state of the city government.
But he has ordered “redirection” of some of the huge projects of the Nepomuceno administration, including the P812-million sports complex project in Barangay Mining.
Of this amount, some P600 million would come from a loan from the Philippine Veterans Bank.
Pamintuan said the loan is being renegotiated for the construction of a city college in the same site, as well as for the upgrading of the Ospital Ning Angeles.
In his inaugural speech in front of the city hall, Pamintuan said “first in the order is that the city hall needs to tighten it belt.”
“In this regard, we need to improve on our revenue generation and collection and curb graft and corruption related to the collection of taxes and levies, without passing the burden to our people in the form of increased and new taxes,” he said.
Pamintuan also vowed to make Angeles the “education capital for Central Luzon” with the establishment of the Angeles City College “which shall offer specialized courses and degrees that shall respond to the professional needs of the emerging mega-logistics hub within the Clark-Subic corridor.”
Pamintuan has been the chairman of the Arroyo government’s Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council.
He also promised to boost tourism in the city and “radically transform the otherwise honky-tonk district of Fields Avenue into a more wholesome tourism area.”
The new mayor also vowed to address the city’s P63-million debt to a sanitary landfill in Tarlac which already closed its doors to local wastes.
