“Davao: Life is here” finally gives the city its
official brand. At least in the aspect of tourism, the logo epitomizes what we
are as a city. By taking the lead in the promotion, Mayor Sara Duterte drives to
our head a slogan we can easily recall or even call our own. It is neither
satisfying our longing for expression nor putting our creative faculty to test
once again after the Kadayawan logo hullabaloo. “Life is here” is a great
come-on as it strikes the very core of life and government alike. Yes, I said
government because of taxes being its lifeblood as we all know. Hence, it can
also be said without doubt, “Taxation: life is here”, as far as the government
is concerned.
Dabawenyos may have owed to a certain
extent and a great deal about our tax collection system. Records speak for
itself the positive trend of money drawn to the coffers of government from
local sources. It gave us a momentary sigh of relief when Mayor Sara divulged during
her recent State of the City Address the 18.53% increase in the collection making
the city now Php 553 million richer compared to last year’s revenue from same semestral
period from January to June. It is not only a matter of investments continually
poured in to sustain the momentum of our local economy, specific points have
now tolled regarding efficiency in tax collection which we could give to our
City Treasurer’s Office this full credit.
A very sad news however started to hound all LGUs due
to the reduction of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) for 2012 which predictably
shakes up budgetary priorities of the city. The Department of Budget and
Management was resolved on the budget cut and eventually issued budget
memoranda dropping the IRA level to 4.8%. This would translate a deduction of
around Php 360 Million from the city’s Php 4.3 Billlion for next year.
Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad in
said memoranda expressed that the IRA share of all LGUs will decrease by
P13.635 billion or 4.8 percent to P273.31 billion in 2012 as compared to
P286.94 billion in 2011. Abad blamed the reduction on the “sharp decrease of
revenue collections in 2009 brought about by the global economic slump as well
as revenue-eroding measures”. Note carefully: decrease of revenue collections. This
goes also with the finality of the judgment of the 16-cityhood case to feast
over and claim their rightful slice of the budget.
With the plight of city hall workers, the mayor has
assured to spare them from the impending crisis and consider the adjustment of
debt servicing instead rather than opting for mass termination of
personnel. Fellow government employees, are
you not happy and dare not say anything? This mayoral mercy should be exchanged
with a full understanding on the gloomy days ahead. The entire country is
doomed and worse, those cities or municipalities with inefficient tax system
could no longer cope with their needed revenue.
Life is definitely here in Davao because our tax
collection system never weakens, while the country’s resources are beginning to
wane. During the awarding of this year’s s top ten taxpayers in business and
realty taxes, CTO Chief Rodrigo Riola commented that the city is fortunate because
of the timely payment and honest declaration of taxpayers’ income as reflected
in their ITR. This may be disputable but the records of collection can very
well satisfy this thought.
Finally, thanks to the intellectual creation of Rey
“Bai” G. Mangansay, the brain behind the strapline “Davao: Life is here”. It is
in this field of advertising that he is known for and accordingly was
responsible to increase the profits of products ranging from toothpicks to
jumbo jets, literally. But little did we know that the whole package of the
promotional campaign would not be sealed without the support of credible
endorsers, starting with Mayor Sara herself and all the tourism and business
partners of the city. Isn’t it that Duterte is a country’s trademark supporting
a brand which makes all the difference?
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