‘Bistek’ knows what it takes; GMS stages ‘Gold Concert’
BY
HIZZONER
of the country’s Capitol City is out dangling the proverbial red carrot lined up with virtually irresistible freebees to attract more honest taxpayers when paying their annual business taxes.
They have until January 20 to bite the bait, to avoid penalties and interest charges for late payment.
These days Quezon City businessmen are looking up at Mayor Bistek Bautista who, in announcements using various media outlets, is fluttering City Ordinance SP-2780, giving business establishments enticing incentives.
The offer to businessmen (those with registered businesses since 2016) to pay their taxes for 2019 just 30 percent higher than what they paid in 2018.
Theirs are incentives never before granted to any of their kind in their previous taxable years.
Among them, exemption from the submission of business records and other financial documents to the city treasurer. And exemption from the inspection and examination of theirbooks of accounts for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018.
A requirement, however, is that a business has no pending cases in court related to its business records and relevant documents.
If these requirements are complied with, there is a “Special Express Lane” waiting for them in the 2nd floor city treasurer’s office at the main City Hall building.
Aside from big corporations based in Quezon City, I’m sure hordes of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will take advantage of the Bistek program.
The more than 70,000 SME’s are a major source of the city’s hundreds of billions of cash revenue every year.
With some good sense possessed by Mayor Bistek, his present gesture is one way of returning back to the business sector its financial support via the honest payment of taxes by these entrepreneurs to the city all these years.
“Di na puro kabig ng kabig lang.”
* * *
GREENHILLS MUSIC STUDIO’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY.
This is one institution in the metropolis whose enviable achievements in the last 50 years attest to the reality that it will gain even more excellent strides in many golden years ahead.
Prof. Carmencita Guanzon-Arambulo, director of Greenhills Music Studio, raised the curtains of the thematic celebration – GMS Gold – marking the school’s 50th anniversary at La Salle Greenhills Brother Donato Center last November 30.
A musical concert featuring performers, composers, alumni, students, families, and friends, its repertoire from classical to pop, with chamber orchestras, piano solos, alumni, students, and family ensembles, plus a choir, covering five decades of young talents and the special place where it all began.
Also honored were eight Golden Luminaries, outstanding GMS alumni and faculty selected in recognition of their exemplary performances in their respective fields.
Since 1968, GMS has grown from a one-room, 12-student home studio, to an extension wing with 13 air-conditioned rooms, a recital hall, 17 instructors in piano, violin, voice, guitar, cello, kindermusik, music theory, and Suzuki pedagogy.
GMS continues the tradition of excellence. It has produced winners in regional, national, and international musical competitions.
Ideally located – No. 1 Missouri Street, off Connecticut Street – in the heart of the Greenhills District (East), the institution is surrounded by tall trees, foliage, vines, flowering trees, and an abundance of greenery.
It has for a neighbor the Sanctuario de San Jose Parish Church where parents, while waiting for their children to finish their music lessons, can visit for a short prayer and brief meditation.
GMS has graduated a number of prominent personalities, among them the late Jo Ramos, daughter of former President Fidel and Mrs. Ming Ramos, and the little Aimee Marcos. The Avendano siblings all studied there, notably, the charming Thelma Marie Avendano-Elio, now a practicing OBgyne at St. Luke’s Medical Center.
Other distinguished alumni include Louie Ocampo, Rowena Arrieta, Midori Fuji, Carolyn Kleiner, Marites Salientes, Manoling Francisco, Rica Arambulo, Allier Manahan, Jonathan Coo, Katherine Fernandez, Oliver Salonga, Alexandra Minoza, Sandiwadel Rosario, and Regina Buenaventura.