by Carine M. Asutilla (ABS-CBN News Central Visayas)


After being known as the dancing tax collectors, the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office will entertain taxpayers with the their "Laughing Tax Collectors" starting this month.

Cebu City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva said that the new routine will be beneficiary to the employees of the office since laughing can improve the health condition and will later result to their productivity.

“We all know that laughing is the best medicine. My employees are stress in their work and sometimes they get bored, I will inject laughing in them so they will be more alert in their job,” she said.

Oliva said that through the new routine she expects 100 percent attendance of the employees and lesser health risks.

Oliva said that the routine will be done every two hours for two minutes. She said that since laughing is contagious, taxpayers are expected to laugh with them. She said that in this way, they can pass on the happy mood to the taxpayers.

But Oliva said that even if they are having the laughing tax collectors, the dancing tax collectors will remain. They will perform on special occasions especially when the deadline for paying taxes is near.

Oliva said that their dancing talent has helped them reach their collection target. She said that for the first quarter of this year, they were able to get Php1.48B tax collection almost hitting the Php1.5B target. She expects that by the second quarter they will exceed the same target.

Tuesday, 47 students who had their summer jobs in the City Treasurer’s Office offered a dance number with Oliva in the tune of “On the Floor” by J.Lo. The dance number was a culminating activity for the summer workers.

The office has 173 summer workers who worked as messengers, they send demand letters and serve bills and notices to taxpayers. They will end their summer job this June 7, 2011.