CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The City Economic Enterprises and Business Development Administration (CEEBDA) admitted it has provided the Commission on Audit “erroneous and unbalanced list of delinquent and non-delinquent stallholders in the public markets” in this city. As a result, COA came up with a report that the city has P124,090,744.16 worth of uncollected revenues, fees, and charges from market stall leases from calendar year of 2022 and prior years, something that the city council would like to subject in a probe. “We ask for apologies for submitting an erroneous and unbalanced List of Delinquent and Non-Delinquent Stallholders in the public markets,” said CEEBDA head Marfe Dacoco in her Feb. 23, 2023 response letter to COA’s Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM). "It was noticed that there are vacant stalls (unoccupied) which were included in the occupied stalls which made the aggregated uncollected amount higher than the actual status of rental delinquencies,” added Dacoco. The city council had earlier said it will investigate the alleged amount of uncollected revenues and fees from the city’s markets as indicated in the COA’s AOM report, which was brought up by Councilor Jose Pepe Abbu Jr.’s special report in the city council’s session on May 2. CEEBDA is in charge of managing and collecting fees from the city’s markets, including Cogon, Carmen, Bulua, and Puerto. “We are submitting the corrected data. Again, our apologies," added Dacoco. According to the letter, the beginning balance of uncollected revenues, fees, and charges in the calendar year of 2017, when the former City Economic Enterprises Department (CEED) took over the collecting function, was P65,755,212.55 and P33,116,461.75 for Cogon public market and Carmen public market, respectively. But the given uncollected balances have been reduced since 2018 to 2022, with the initiative of the said department, despite the threat of Covid-19 pandemic. Among the measures initiated to collect rental delinquencies was the issuance of "Pahibalo" (notice) and "Demand Letters" to the concerned stallholders for them to settle their obligations. There were also several market stalls in the public markets of Cogon and Carmen that were being subjected to "temporary closure" as they accordingly failed to renew their business permits and resolve their delinquent rental payments. As of the calendar year 2022, the uncollected balances from Cogon public market and Carmen public market stall holders went down to P30,874,433.63 and P31,627,592.15, respectively, for a total of P71,912,025.64, including the uncollected balances of water billings in the public markets of Cogon, Carmen, and Farmers Markets (former Westbound Terminal and Public Market) and stall rental delinquency in Puerto and Farmers Market. For the abandoned stalls, Dacoco cited in her letter City Ordinance No. 14385-2022 that said that "the outstanding stall rentals of abandoned market stalls are hereby condoned and shall be declared vacant for awarding to other applicants." Dacoco also mentioned in her letter that they had already prepared for the issuance of lease contracts for market stall holders as they only waited for the assumption of the administration of Mayor Rolando Uy. It can be recalled that COA, according to its AOM, observed that allegedly no stall holders from the public markets of Carmen and Puerto have signed the contract; only the stall holders of Bulua public market have all signed the contract. In the Cogon public market, only 3.1 percent, or 98 out of the 2,569 stall holders there, have signed the contract. The Manila Bulletin tried to reach out to Dacoco to get further updates about the issue and for some clarifications, but there was no response. However, the special report by Abbu has been referred to the committees on economic enterprises, ways and means, and laws and rules for further investigation.