Published by Sunday Post
A powerful barrier built around 54 years of community journalism was virtually broken when Mayor Dan Neri Lim ordered the investigation of tax payments of the Bohol Chronicle, the province’s leading bi-weekly.
A media institution like the Bohol Chronicle which was believed untouchable among media peers went under the microscope when the Office of the City Treasurer started the ball rolling when it blew off the lid on the media giant’s business tax liabilities.
The bi-weekly of over half a century pioneered the print business in Bohol with its uncompromising editorials and up-to-the-minute news stories until it locked horns with a no-nonsense city hall tenant like Mayor Lim.
Founded by the late Jun Dejaresco, the Chronicle, saw the rise and fall of governors and city mayors. While having run-ins with some of them in the past, it was clear that the winner took it all and it was no other than this media colossus. Erring public officials who did try to tangle with the Chronicle were bruised and wounded and may have opted to vow-- never again.
During the heydays of its founder, nobody from among the ranks of so-called local papers owned by lesser mortals can afford to touch the publication with a ten-foot pole.
Until Mayor Lim drew the battle lines against the twin media outfit that it became fair game not just to the city executive but to struggling publications as well.
In her letter to Peter Dejaresco, DYRD general manager and Chronicle managing editor, City Treasurer Visitacion Acero revealed that the city government is conducting an investigation on the broadcast and print powerhouse for its “non-payment†of business taxes.
“Based on records, the Bohol Chronicle has not paid business taxes on the year 2003 and on the years prior to that,†Acero told Dejaresco.
As if the shattering blow to the Chronicle’s aura of invincibility was not enough, the city treasurer followed this up with an even more devastating observation of the media institution’s “unrealistic gross receipts declaration†from 2004 to 2008.
“We will be investigating this incident to identify its root cause to ensure that this incident will not happen again,†Acero said.
Lim and the Dejarescos have been going after each other’s throat since the Chronicle and DYRD openly mocked the mayor’s response to the drainage problem in the city.
The mayor clearly put his political career on the line by severing ties with the Dejaresco outfit and moving out to DYTR which is DYRD’s rival station.
In a virtual slugfest, Lim and Bingo Dejaresco, the Chronicle editor-in-chief exchanged bitter words that caught the imagination of Boholanos in every nook and cranny.
DYRD commentators and reporters pulled no punches against Lim who returned the favor by picking the Dejaresco mystique apart, something no politician dared to do or even thought of doing.
Lim, who goes on the air from 5:15 to 7 am daily and from 8 to 10 am on Saturdays, all on DYTR, said he is doing all he can because knowing the Dejarescos, he will not survive the 2010 polls.
“They tell people I will follow the path of all those whose political careers ended when the Bohol Chronicle went after them,†the mayor declared sarcastically.
Lim however made it clear he will not go down without a fight.
Acero’s letter to the DYRD general manager delivered the message in no unequivocal terms.
“The City Government is very vigilant on businesses who evade their taxes because businesses who cheated on taxes cheated not only the city government but also their industry peers who have been religiously paying taxes, the community wherein they operate and which they claimed to have been served by them faithfully, and most importantly to God,†the letter said.
Lim said while the total amount of the business taxes paid by the Chronicle from 2004 has been less than those of the Sunday Post and the Bohol Times, no one imagined that the day will come when the Chronicle would receive a stinging rebuke from anybody.
There is no quarrel with Acero when she said that the Chronicle’s non-payment of business tax in previous years “has eroded†confidence in the newspaper’s current declaration. But for her to verbalize it is completely unexpected.
Aside from the investigation of the non-payment of business tax, Acero said the city will also be reviewing the Chronicle’s current gross receipts declaration to “provide it with reasonable assurance that the gross receipts declared by you represents the underlying actual gross receipts of the business.â€
Lim acknowledges that he is making a big gamble when he stood up against the Bohol Chronicle but believes history will ultimately vindicate him.
No one can tell who will end up on the canvass in the fight between the media giant and the irrepressible mayor. One thing is sure though: things will never be the same as far as the Tagbilaran political and media scene is concerned.
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