Newsbriefs

MANDAUE TO REVALIDATE TAX MAP

The Mandaue city government is set to check its data on the exact number of business establishments in the city.

The City Treasurer’s Office counted 8,000 businesses in a tax mapping campaign last year, but City Administrator James Abadia said their estimate is actually about 15,000.

The revalidation process will take 18 months in four phases: trainers training, actual phase survey, interpretation of data and effects of the survey.

The total area of Mandaue City which is about 34,000 square kilometers will be covered .

Tax mapping teams will be composed of City Hall employees and volunteers from the private sector.

Abadia said tax mapping would prevent businesses from evading taxes./Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos

RADAZAS WELCOME REFILING OF LAMPPOST RAP

Rep. Arturo Radaza of the lone district of Lapu-Lapu City said he welcomes the decision of the Ombudsman Visayas to refile the graft case against him in connection with the overpricing of decorative lampposts installed for the 2007 Asean Summit.

Speaking on behalf of the lawmaker, Mayor Paz Radaza said they remain confident the Sandiganbayan will again dismiss the case against her husband.

She said Lapu-Lapu City was just made to receive the lampposts but the “the bidding, the canvassing, the purchase and the planning were not made here, it was all in Manila (DPWH central office).”

She stressed that signing the Program of Works and Estimates (POWE) could not be a reason to indict Rep. Radaza, who was mayor of the city in 2007.

The mayor questioned why former Cebu City mayor and incumbent south district Rep. Tomas Osmeña was not indicted. Unlike the mayors of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, Osmeña did not sign the POWE. But DPWH went ahead and put up lampposts in Cebu City. /Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza

ALLOW US BODYGUARDS, RADAZAS ASK COMELEC

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza and her husband Rep. Arturo Radaza have requested the

Commission on Election to exempt them from the ban on having armed bodyguards.

The request was endorsed by the local police.

The Radazas cited the Cebu City Palace of Justice shooting last Jan. 22 as proof of imminent danger even with the election gun ban in place.

Mayor Radaza said they felt secure even when their police security escorts were recalled by the PNP last Jan. 13, but theywere alarmed when the shooting happened in the Palace of Justice.

“We are not taking any chances especially with what happened in the Palace of Justice. We do not have a problem if we just stay in City Hall, but we also have engagements outside,” said Mayor Radaza. /Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza