THE newly appointed officer-in-charge of the Mandaue City Treasurer’s Office has begun conducting cash counts to verify the actual amount of money in the City’s coffers.
This is part of efforts to improve revenue collection efficiency under the new administration’s goal of ensuring sufficient funds for ongoing projects and programs.
Claire Cabalda, who concurrently serves as the regular city treasurer of Lapu-Lapu City, officially assumed office in Mandaue on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, replacing former city treasurer Regal Oliva.
In an interview on Monday, Aug. 11, Cabalda said one of her immediate tasks is to oversee regular cash counts to ensure accuracy and safeguard city funds.
“Regular cash counts are part of the standard operations of the treasurer’s office to check if the money is intact and properly accounted for,” she said.
She added that these cash counts are essential in evaluating the office’s overall collection performance.
Revenue collection
Cabalda further said that her other priority is to review the city’s revenue collection data to determine how much money is available.
Mandaue City’s annual budget is about P4.5 billion.
As of July 21, the City had collected P1.5 billion in business taxes, matching the total business tax collection for the entire year of 2024, according to the Business Permit and Licensing Office.
Cabalda said her office will examine where collection gaps exist, whether in business tax or real property tax and identify strategies to improve efficiency. Although she has yet to see the official reports, she cited potential improvements such as enhancing taxpayer awareness and improving the integration of collection systems.
She noted that while both Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu are highly urbanized cities with a similar number of barangays — 27 in Mandaue and 30 in Lapu-Lapu — their internal collection systems differ significantly.
“There are still notable differences, particularly in the systems being used. This needs to be checked further since Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue use different systems. The level of integration and connectivity between offices varies, and that’s one of the key areas we need to look into,” Cabalda said.
Handling the responsibilities of two highly urbanized cities will be challenging, Cabalda admitted, but she plans to split her time between them — spending two to three days a week in Mandaue and the rest in Lapu-Lapu.
She said Mayor Thadeo “Jonkie” Ouano has confidence in her, saying that the latter already knew her personally.
According to Cabalda, she was personally requested by Ouano to serve as OIC and was formally appointed by the Bureau of Local Government Finance.
City Administrator Sally Malig-on said in an interview that Cabalda’s concurrent assignment is for one year, after which the city hopes to appoint a permanent treasurer.
The administration also aims to be considerate of Lapu-Lapu City’s needs in this arrangement. / CAV