Sunday, November 25, 2007 Lapu-lapu City ‘invested’ P74M
THE Lapu-Lapu City Government spent P74.60 million for economic development last year.
This resulted in a 24 percent increase in newly registered businesses and industries.
But the City Government was not able to come up with an alternative program, particularly on tax debt-servicing, for the business sector because 185 companies and small enterprises closed during the same year.
The survey by the Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS) said there were 7,774 businesses in the city last year, including those newly registered and those that closed.
The LGPMS survey also showed that 2,139 jobs that lasted six months or more were created with the entry of the new companies and small enterprises.
Jobs
But despite the increase in the number of businesses, about 11,200 of the workforce are without jobs.
The city has a population of about 265,000, half of which is the workforce.
Vice Mayor Mario Amores said he and Mayor Arturo Radaza have agreed to organize a business and enterprise unit that will serve as link between the business sector and City Hall to improve the economic standing of the city.
“We need this unit to match our new status as a highly urbanized city and prevent the same conflict that the City now has with the group of Mr. (Efrain) Pelaez Jr. This is separate from the group that we also intend to organize to upgrade the administrative set-up of our City,” he said.
Some 50 businessmen in Lapu-Lapu City and the neighboring town of Cordova have organized themselves in response to a call for business leaders and investors to resist extortion and requests for kickbacks from local government officials.
Pelaez led the creation of the Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc.
The businessman has tangled with City Hall officials over his allegations of corruption against the mayor and other officials.
The City Government had closed Pelaez’s Marina Mall last Oct. 19 because it lacked permits. But the establishment was reopened nine hours later after the Philippine Economic Zone Authority asserted its jurisdiction over the mall.
Pelaez and City Attorney Vincent Joseph Lim and City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez have exchanged damages lawsuits over accusations of non-payment of taxes.
A graft complaint is also pending at the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for the allegedly overpriced purchase of P23 million worth of personal computers by the City Government. (AIV)
