QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Monday delivered his fifth and last state-of-the-city address of his second term, crowing about his gains and his ability to “free new fund sources for the city’s development through tough negotiations.”
On the 76th foundation day of the city, Bautista declared his third and last bid as mayor in the 2016 national and local polls.
He took into account the accomplishments of the city government under his term, saying he has introduced “several determined but commonsense measures to free idle assets of pending obligations into productive revenue contributors to the city.”
“Total revenue gross collections for the Quezon City government reached P15.5 billion in 2014. For the first nine months of this year, gross collections have already reached P14.63 billion, which already covers the 2015 budget target of P14.46 billion,” he said.
According to Bautista, another “determined negotiations” of the city government “finally resolved the 33-year-old settled account from the Land Bank of the Philippines,” he noted.
“In 1982, the local government unit placed P30 million in trust with LandBank, which the bank lent to Ramawil Properties without any enforceable collateral,” he said.
The security used by Ramawil was falsified land titles, prompting the LandBank to file a case.
The LandBank won and obtained the Ramawil properties, but the city government was not able to collect against the bank “until this year when a compromise agreement was finally signed between the local government and LandBank.”
“With this agreement, the city government gets back the P30 million and also P142 million in interest earnings, which represents fresh money for development projects,” Bautista said.
He said he has also pushed for strategic partnerships with the National Housing Authority, Road Board and the city’s Department of Public Order and Safety to expand the city’s housing stock by 21,707 shelter units.
Because of their partnership with the Road Board, Bautista said they were able to expand their capacity to install more low-carbon LED lights on major thoroughfares.
