Oliva moves to Capitol, may revive ‘dancing tax collectors’

FROM Cebu City Hall, Treasurer Ofelia Oliva is expected to report for work today at the Capitol.

She said she was issued a memorandum by the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF-7) to replace acting provincial treasurer Emmanuel Guial.

While she has yet to warm her seat, Oliva said she may consider bringing her “dancing collectors” program to the Capitol and work in tandem with Cebu’s famed dancing inmates.

“I received the order at 11:15 this morning (Wednesday) and was instructed to proceed to the Capitol. The order says I will be here (at the Capitol) for a month,” she said. The appointment is effective immediately.

Guial was one of five Capitol department heads who went on leave shortly after outgoing Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia re-assumed her post at the end of her six-month suspension last June 17.

Garcia replaced the officials who filed leaves including Guial. Oliva visited the Provincial Treasurer’s Office at past 1 p.m and paid a courtesy call on Garcia yesterday.

Oliva said she will focus on devising ways to generate more revenue for the provincial government which has unsettled payables from contracts entered into by the Garcia administration.

“I am used to those kinds of challenges because I am always assigned to an LGU (local government unit) with financial difficulties,” she said.

Oliva said she will first check the state of the provincial government’s treasury and meet with her staff tomorrow.

She will also meet with all the municipal and city treasurers of the province to map out an action plan for the rest of the year.

Oliva also said her dancing collectors program can be used to encourage taxpayers in the province to pay on time.

“I told (some of my staff) about it and they said ganahan sab mi manayaw ma’am (we’re interested in dancing),” she said.

A former Cebu City treasurer, Oliva served under the administrations of former mayor Tomas Osmeña and incumbent Mayor Michael Rama.

She was replaced by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima with Asst. Treasurer Tessie Camarillo, an appointment that Rama scrapped after Camarilo admitted that the city cannot meet the mayor’s P10 billion budget target for last year.

Before her appointment yesterday as provincial treasurer, Oliva served as a financial adviser of Cebu City Hall.

Oliva visited the Provincial Treasurer’s Office located at the third floor of the Executive building at past 1 p.m yesterday.

Oliva said she will be happy if Cebu Gov.-elect Hilario Davide III chooses her to continue heading the provincial treasury when he assumes his post on July 1.

She described the incoming governor as a “very good guy” and a “professional,” with whom she worked with at Cebu City Hall when Davide served as city councilor under Osmeña’s administration.

“We are very good friends. I liked him when he was chairman of the Ways and Means committee because we always discussed the areas where we could increase generation of revenue,” Oliva said. /Peter L. Romanillos, Correspondent with Correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan