Baguio market anomaly probe /Making private cars irrelevant

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY -- Mayor Benjamin Magalong appealed to market vendors for cooperation in the ongoing investigations on anomalies involving market fees.
    In a letter dated July 20, 2022, the mayor asked merchants to come forward and submit available copies of official receipts for their arrival fees or “kwartais” covering the period January 2020 to present.
    “Your cooperation is very much needed to ferret out the truth in this ongoing investigation.  If proven true, this practice of anomalous filling-out of Accountable Forms (AF) 51 by revenue collectors had been depriving the city government of the collection of lawful fees that could have been used for public service,” the mayor said.
    He said the ORs from the vendors will enable the city government to compare the original with the duplicate or triplicate copies and establish the integrity of amounts collected.
    OR copies may be submitted to the Baguio City Police Office with the assurance that “any information gathered from (the vendors) will be treated with confidentiality.”
    The mayor said investigations had so far revealed that the employees manipulated the amounts reflected in the duplicate and triplicate copies of the receipts being submitted to the city treasury to make it appear that they collected lower fees than the actual amount collected that is reflected in the original OR.  The excess amounts had not been remitted to the city coffers. 
    As a result of the investigation, a total of seven personnel of the market division under the City Treasury Office have so far been charged of malversation through falsification of public documents and falsification.
    The mayor said more cases are expected to be filed as investigations continue in the coming days.
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 The city government is pursuing its plan to modernize the city’s public transportation system with the goal of making private car usage irrelevant, according to Mayor Magalong.
    The mayor said the city is open to offers for smart mobility and transportation system ventures through public-private partnership scheme.
    One company, the Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), which served intention to submit an unsolicited proposal on the PPP project  briefed the mayor and other department heads last July 18 on the partial results of the feasibility study it is conducting on the venture.
MPTC vice president Mark De Leon and Mobility Road head Leong Hin Cheong of ST Engineering (STE),     MPTC’s consultant, presented updates on the financial and technical studies they are conducting.
    They said that if the venture materializes, it will be the first of such project to be implemented in the country.
    The mayor tasked the company to present initial findings to stakeholders in the city particularly the transport groups, tourism and business sectors, commuters, city councils and other groups in appropriate engagements.
    “This is to properly explain to the stakeholders and the public what smart mobility and transportation system, its concepts and dynamics.  It will be best if people have an understanding of the project before the PPP process takes off,” he said.
    The stakeholders’ engagement and subsequent presentation to the city council have been set for August. 
    The mayor said the smart mobility goal is aimed at providing long-term solution to the city’s perennial traffic problem by modernizing the public transport system to make it so efficient that people would have reduced need to use private transport.
    He said that with the modernized system, traffic will be managed by an integrated artificial intelligence (AI)-powered system that will monitor traffic conditions and direct solutions to ensure equitable distribution of public utility vehicles.
    A command center will oversee the traffic conditions in areas including intersections and staging areas through tracking systems to ensure that vehicles are available where they are needed.
    Aside from addressing traffic congestions, the program will also cover management of traffic violations and improve road discipline.