Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said Monday Manila will need to vigorously collect taxes as the city runs on a budget deficit after inheriting a P4.3-billion deficit left behind by his predecessor Joseph “Erap” Estrada.
Citing a report from the Commission on Audit released over the weekend, Moreno said Manila also owes P214 million to the Government Service Insurance System, belying the former city chief executive’s claim that the Estrada administration turned over P10 billion to the new regime.
As late as September 2018, then-Mayor Estrada said Manila was already debt-free, as the former president handed to the Bureau of Internal Revenue a P200-million check to settle the city’s tax liabilities from 2007.
But the recent COA report said Manila’s P5.361-billion General Fund is insufficient to cover its payables and trust liabilities worth P9.047 billion, aside from unrecorded disbursements, unimplemented Development Fund projects, and savings and differences in intra-agency accounts.
Moreno also said the previous administration entered into P2.9 billion worth of contracts in Estrada 30 remaining days in office. He promised he will look if these contracts are legal and if the projects really benefit the public.
Although Moreno, who was once vice mayor to Estrada, did not categorically say he will file charges against the previous administration’s officials, he said that if there is any anomaly in the signing of multibillion-peso contracts, all former and current city hall officials will be held liable.
Meanwhile, Moreno vowed to sustain his cleanup drive of illegal vendors in all major streets in Manila, saying it’s a promise that will continue while he’s the mayor of the capital.
Once a garbage collector himself, Moreno claimed he would not be swayed into accepting bribes to abandon his campaign to clean up filthy Manila, not only from illegal street vendors but also criminals.
He said he will clean Manila in a way not done by his predecessors, Estrada and Alfredo Lim.
Asked if he can sustain his campaign against illegal vendors, Moreno said he would try to do it with the support of the national government.
Because of Moreno's cleanup of Divisoria and other major streets, waste-management program, clearing of waterways, and anti-gambling program, the Department of Interior and Local Government commended the new mayor for his initiatives to clean Manila.
Barely a week into office, Moreno said his work has just begun. He took his staff on drives around Manila this weekend to check on several areas that constituents had told him had problems that needed his intervention, a GMA News report noted.
