Poor Masbate posts high earnings, says gov

MASBATE CITY – This province, which has been dependent on the internal revenue allotment from the national government for years, is now capable of financing projects without resorting to borrowing, said Governor Rizalina Seachon-Lanete.

The province, Lanete said, has a “whopping” cash deposit of over P100 million at the Development Bank of the Philippines as of June 27 this year.

She announced this during her state of the province address in a special session of the provincial board held at the Capitol lobby on June 29. A copy of the speech was sent to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Friday.

“From this amount, we can utilize around P100 million for projects,” said the governor.

Among her pet projects, Lanete specifically referred to the P63-million, 200-bed new provincial hospital, which is under construction; and the P25-million concreting of Lagundi Road on Ticao Island.

She said the big earning was partly the result of increased collection of taxes from quarrying operations due to aggressive monitoring by the provincial government.

“The collection [from quarrying operations] realized for the period from July 2009 to May 2010 was only P271,750 while the collection for the same period under our administration has amounted to nearly P1.4 million with a difference of P1.1 million or more than 400 percent increase,” she said.

She said the collection of real property tax from July 2010 to May 2011 also increased by 20 percent.

The local income from various fees from July 2010 to May 2011 also went up to P45 million, compared to the P35.7 million collected over the same period by the previous administration, added Lanete.

But these gains were being weighed down by P280 million debts. “Our province needs to pay P35 million yearly until 2016,” said the governor.

She said the provincial government has implemented cost-cutting measures.