The City Economic Enterprise (CEE) office reported that its revenue collection for the year 2011 was 18.38 percent higher than its collection in 2010.
CEE head Jose Elmero Guintadcan said the total 2011 revenue of P104,399, 475.58 this was the city’s highest collection ever, and was higher by P16,215,276.02 than the 2010 collection of P88,184,199.56.
The city-owned enterprises are the public markets, Davao City Overland Transport Terminal (DCOTT) in Ecoland, Sta. Ana port, public cemeteries, Davao City Recreation Center (DCRC) (formerly Almendras Gym), Magsaysay Park, and slaughterhouses.
Data acquired from the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) showed that the CEE collected P93,576,445.43 in 2009 and P81,573,308.20 in 2008, both of which did not include collection from Magsaysay Park.
The CEE chief said that with the units’ impressive collection of P104,399,475.58 for 2011, the city had earned a respectable surplus of P10,380,960.28 against the office’s target of P94 million for the same year.
Guintadcan said the huge surplus was neither caused by an increase in fees nor a dramatic increase of vendors.
“Our rental fee rates are very lowl, and according to law. What we did was to just really focus on collecting on time and collecting diligently,” the CEE chief said in an interview.
Guintadcan, who was appointed to the position in November 2008, added with pride that the improvement is attributed to the local government’s strengthened ‘dedication in doing what is expected’ in providing social services.
“Our main thrust is, first, to support the drive of the administration to increase the revenue collection from the city’s economic enterprises in order to support and assist economic activities of the city. Second, we aim to improve the basic services of the economic entities, the public markets, improve our services, especially to the vendors and the consuming public,” Guintadcan said, adding that ‘it was a matter of focus’ in keeping the personnel in line, following the 2005 Revenue Code which states that once a renter delays payment of rental one month, a notice of violaton should be immediately issued.
“Once napabayaan mo na kasi ang mga vendors, you make them feel na there’s no monitoring, no authority, you are giving them leeway to become undisciplined. If there are delinquent vendors talagang pinapaalis namin (we eject them) and the other vendors pay their dues religiously, or else…” Guintadcan said.
He also stressed that it is not the City Economic Enterprise office that does the collection but the City Treasurer’s Office.
Another thing, the CEE head from time to time reminds the vendors to keep their areas clean, even as he also keeps tab on the needed repairs and improvements in running the city’s enterprises.
Guintadcan said the CEE is presently targeting a collection of at least P110 million from the city enterprise units for this year.
Broken down, the 2011 collection of P104,399,475.58 is as follows:
(1) P63,507,483 was collected from public markets located in Agdao, Bankerohan, Toril, Mintal, Calinan, Tibungco, Bunawan, and Lasang. Among the eight public markets in the city, the Bankerohan Public Market had the biggest remittance amounting to P23,399,339; Adgao with P19,917,146.37; Toril with P11,737,323.91; Calinan with P4,058,404.42; Mintal with P2,981,393.04; Tibungco with P736,268.84; Bunawan with P597,677.26; and Lasang with P79,929.99; (2) P21,573,445 from the DCOTT; (3) P10,132,276 from slaughterhouses; (4) P7,359,840.93 from the Sta. Ana Port; P681,695 (5) from Magsaysay Park; (6) P623, 800 from the city’s ten public cemeteries; and (7) P520,933 from the DCRC.
Public markets
Guintadcan, however, was not without criticism, admitting the city’s public markets need much improvement, especially the Bankerohan Market.
“For me, the model public market is the Agdao Public Market. There is proper sectioning, the food vendors are separate from the meat vendors, fishes, vegetables, hanggang sa dry goods na ukay-ukay. It has it’s own road network and proper parking area. Bankerohan, although bigger, needs improvement,” he said, pointing to a canal between the fish and meat sections in the Bankerohan Public Market that needs to be repaired for which the city has alloted P1.5 million.
The CEE boss could not help but compare the vendors in the two biggest public markets of the city.
“Unlike the vendors in Agdao, ang vendors sa Bankerohan, they take over space so long na walang nakatingin sa kanila (as long there’s no authority keeping an eye on them). A few months ago halos di na madaanan along Datu Bago Road, but last December we asked the assistance of the Traffic Management Center people at malaki yung tulong (and they were a big help). Every now and then we remind the TMC to keep an eye on the Bankerohan Market,” he said.
Sta. Ana Port
The Enterprise office head also said the vendors at Sta.Ana Port will be subjected to an increase in rental fees and has sought the approval of the Philippine Ports Authority to approve the proposed increase in the rental rates on real estate leased spaces in Sta. Ana Port.
The new rates for 2012 for paved areas will now be P72.00 as opposed to the previous rate of P22.63 which had not increased since 1998. For unpaved areas, the new rate will be P61.00 as opposed to the former rate of P20.83.
Guintadcan said such proposed rates are based on port and tourism usage ‘considering that Sta. Ana Port is a focal point of tourism activity of our neighboring city waterfronts and resorts.
This, Guintadcan said, had been announced to vendors since October last year.
Pubic cemeteries
Meanwhile, much change and improvement has been undergoing at the city’s public cemeteries, specifically the Wireless Public Cemetery.
The CEE in 2011 started rehabilitation of the Wireless Cemetery on Madapo Hills. Guintadcan said the first phase of the rehabilitation is 70 percent complete and is set to finish next month.
“At least P5 million has been released so far out of the P23.2 million budget for the first phase. The first phase includes the construction of three-level ossuaries with a total of 1,920 units; an administration building; a concrete fence and three steel gates; clearing and road network; and exhumation of bones,” Guintadcan said, adding that public cemetery supervisor Gerardo Antonio Castillo reported that the exhumation of bones is 60 percent done, with 3,492 total exhumed sets of bones.
“Just to clarify, the families of the departed were informed and most were present during the exhumation of bones. Next month we will be informing them collectively on the new rental fee rates for our ossuaries,” he said.
Guintadcan said the office has proposed to amend the revenue code to increase the rental rates in the public-owned cemeteries and contracta of lease of up to six years.
The rental rate for an ossuary, the depository area for bones, is proposed to cost P250 annually.
Meanwhile, eight out of the nine other public cemeteries will also be refurbished after the initial project at Wireless Cemetery is completed—namely, Bunawan, Panacan, Ma-a, Toril, Tibungco, Mintal, Calinan, and Tugbok – excluding Paquibato.
Magsaysay Park
This year the Magsaysay Park will also undergo refurbishment, Guintadcan said, as the private sector is lending a hand in beautifying the once lively hangout of Dabawenyos. The Chinatown Development Council is “very interested to assist the city in the rehabilitation of the wooden seats within the park.
They will be providing new if not repair the chairs inside. That alone is very costly. Other than that we also want to improve the lighting inside the Park which is very dim.”
Around the 90’s, the Magsaysay Park used to have lively night activities with barbeque stands, carnival rides, and performers. Food and alcololic beverages were sold.
However, Guintadcan said, as the atmosphere occasionally triggered fights and assaults between intoxicated customers, the City banned vendors from inside Magsaysay Park.
Davao City Overland Transport Terminal
There are ongoing improvements at the DCOTT which has an alloted budget of P6 million from the Supplemental Budget No. 1 the previous year.
Among improvements are the construction of a passenger lounge with separate facilites for males and females, and improved terminal services such as adding roofing to roofless portions.
“We are making changes knowing the terminal caters to a lot of people. We want to improve it to serve the passengers better,” Guintadcan said.
Davao City Recreation Center
Guintadcan also noted that one strategy the City Economic Enterprise can do to ensure increase in revenue from the City’s Recreation Center is to accept more sports events, especially boxing.
The officer said ticket rates for boxing promotions are simply much higher than for other sports events.
The DCRC earned the lowest income of the city’s enterprise units as the non-paying users outnumber those who paid.
As a resolution, Guintadcan has proposed to increase rental use of the DCRC this year.
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