By Mae Singuay
Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez appealed to city residents to report fake business permits circulating in the city.
Benitez, during his first State of the City Address (SOCA) on Wednesday, July 5 at the City Government Center grounds, said the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) received a report pertaining to fake business permits.
“May nagpalapit sa akon, gasugid fake nga business permit,” he said.
He explained that under his administration, through the e-governance program, it is now easy for the city government to validate business permits because they now have a quick response (QR) code.
Benitez said the previous administration took so long to process permits because of the long queuing at the government center grounds.
Some business establishments preferred to contract with the fixers for the immediate release of the permits.
“Ang wala nila nabal-an, na-peke sila gali,” Benitez claimed.
“Nakibot ko ang business permits sang nagligad nga administration, kulang ang security features —amo na hapos lang pekeon. That is why nagbutang kita sang QR code sa gina-issue naton nga business permits,” he added.
Meanwhile, data from the City Treasurer’s Office showed that local revenues of the city government for the first quarter of the year amounted to P1.08 billion, a 24-percent increase in tax collection compared to the same period last year.
“If we compare ini sang pre-pandemic collection, ang 2023 first quarter collection naton already exceeded ang collection for the entire 2019,” he said.
Reports generated from BPLO also showed the gross reported sales of registered businesses in Bacolod increased by 35.31 percent from a pre-pandemic figure of P87.78 billion from July 2018 to June 2019, and post-pandemic gross sales of P118.78 billion from July 2022 to June 2023.
For the same period, Benitez said business renewal applications increased by 6.41 percent, and business expansion went up by 57.38 percent.
Benitez delivered his SOCA for more than an hour, presenting the city government’s accomplishments in governance, infrastructure projects, peace and order, tourism, health, and others./MS, WDJ