Thus said Balibago Barangay Rodelio “Tony” Mamac on Friday as he scored the statements made by City Treasurer Juliet Quinsaat here recently.
In a press statement, Quinsaat rejected Mamac’s claim that most of the barangay captains have yet to receive their shares from the real property tax (RPT).
In an interview at his office on Friday, Mamac said he had issued statements that 33 villages failed to get their RPT shares “when they were not yet released early in January.”
“Our RPT tax shares are included in our annual budget and any delay would hamper our delivery of basic services and projects. We were asking for our shares for the benefit of the people, no less,” Mamac said.
He added that his weekly feeding program for some 500 malnourished elementary and high school students had been affected due to the delay of the release of the tax shares.
He disclosed that his annual budget in 2008 was P9.7 million and he had only used some P7.7 million.
“We failed to use two million pesos from the annual budget because they should have come from the RPT and other tax shares,” said Mamac. He said he was designated as the spokesperson of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) and had no choice but to air the problems of the village chairmen to the city government.
On January 21, Quinsaat announced that RPT shares for July to September are ready and could be claimed anytime at their office.
Mamac, for his, part, expressed gratitude to Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno for the “release of their RPT shares” after their dialogue with Claro M. Recto Barangay Captain Val Lagman in Clark last January 1.
“The mayor listened to us and asked the treasurer to immediately release our tax shares,” said Mamac.
He added that on January 20, they were able to get their RPT tax share (3rd quarter of 2008) amounting to some P110,000 and some P1.4 million tax shares in 2007.
