By BenCyrus G. Ellorin, Contributor Astute fiscal management amid sharp budget cuts from a contrarian City Council has resulted in solid performance of the administration of Mayor Oscar S. Moreno. City Budget Officer Percy Salazar said they have to make wise use of City Hall resources and maximized resources that are not controlled in any way by the City Council. Salazar said the administration of Mayor Oscar S. Moreno built unpreceden-ted number classrooms in two and a half years because it used judiciously the Special Education Fund, which is sourced from Real Property Taxes. The Moreno administration has already built more than 400 classrooms and looks to finishing over 600 classrooms at the end of his first term next year. Meanwhile, City Treasurer Glenn Banez said that helping poor children have access to schools has been his motivation to faithfully collect local taxes. Banez projects over P200 million real property tax collection and around 1.5 billion pesos in local taxes this year. Last year, City Hall collected around P1.4 billion from local taxes. In the previous administration, real property tax collection had been in the neighbourhood of P150 million and total local taxes collection at less than a billion. “I am an avid biker, and I have seen school children walk kilometers to school. That is why, I have to make the right collection because part of the taxes we at the City Treasurer’s Office collect goes to the Special Education Fund,” Banez said. He added that the More-no administration should not be faulted for its tax collection efforts as it is just implementing the local tax code formulated in 2003. “We are just implementing what has not been faithfully implemented by the previous administration,” said Banez of the tax law that was formulated with for-mer city mayor Dongkoy Emano at the helm of City Hall. Salazar who was brought in by Moreno from the Dept. of Budget and Management said that certain sectors have actually suffered because of the politically-motivated budget cuts made by the City Council that is composed mostly of members of Emano’s PaDayon Pilipino. Aside from budget cuts, the Moreno administration has been saddled with servicing P870 million debt left by the Emano administration. In the last three years, City Hall has spent P394 million in debt servicing. Salazar said this was sour-ced from the city’s general fund. The slash in the proposed budget made by the mayor she said has been unprecedented. During the Emano administration, what is proposed by the mayor has been approved by the City Council, she said. But starting in 2014, the City Council cut the proposed P2.64 billion to P2.31 billion and in 2015, the P3.8 billion to P2.08 billion. The Commission on Audit has noted sharp improvements in the city’s fiscal management when it rendered a “Qualified opinion” to City Hall’s Annual Audit Report in 2014, from the lowest assessment of “Disclaimer opinion” in 2012 and 2013.

Affected services

Among the services that suffered are traffic management and solid waste management. The Roads and Traffic Administration was unable to implement its planned hiring of around 200 traffic enforcers and acquisition of heavy duty tow trucks. However, hard work and efficiency of its existing workforce have been credited for the more than ten-hold traffic citations made by the RTA in the present compared to 2013. The RTA apprehension resulted in more than P2 million in traffic fines in January to June this year, compared to around P200 thousand in 2013. RTA chief lawyer Egay Uy however admits that traffic is still a problem. But he said motorist behaviour has contributed to the problem. “Enforcement can only do so much, motorists behaviour have to be also considered. ..But with more personnel and better equipment, we can still do better,” Uy admitted. On the other hand the second phase of the closure and rehabilitation of the 17-hectare garbage landfill in Upper Dagong, barangay Carmen has been hampered because the P76 million proposed budget for the project which would have made the city compliant to the Solid Waste Management law has been slashed to zero.