The Cebu City Treasurer’s Office collected P50,000 as amusement tax from the organizer of comedian Vice Ganda’s July 19 concert.
City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas said she deiced to accept a lump sum as a “fair” amount instead of 10 percent of ticket sales.
She said her office stopped counting the actual ticket sales since the stubs collected at the concert were not a reliable basis.
Not everyone was a paying guest, she explained, and several complimentary tickets still bore the ticket price.
A representative of concert organizer TSE Live, Inc. said they have no plans of holding a similar concert in Cebu after their experience with City Hall and Vice Ganda’s concert.
The for-adults-only show, drew a packed crowd after promotional billboards had to be taken down for being too “sexy”.
Vice Ganda, on stage, later thanked City Hall for helping achieve a “sold out” concert with the controversy.
The grand ballroom of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel can seat 4,000 in the main floor and upper balcony.
The Cebu City Council earlier revoked the tax exemption granted to the organizer after three billboards were voluntarily removed on orders of the Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board (CCAIB) head Lucelle Mercado.
She said the images of Vice Ganda surrounded by shirtless, muscled men were “sexually suggestive”.
Based on feedback from City Hall personnel who watched the music concert that the format of songs, dances and off-color jokes was like a “comedy gay bar, Mercado sent word to the organizers, warning them not to hold a similar show in the city unless they want to be fined for violating the city’s anti-indecency ordinance.
“At first, they offered to pay P20,000 but I did not approve. When they offered P50,000, I agreed but told them that I have to watch the concert first before receiving the money,” Cuevas said in Cebuano.
She watched the “Vice Gandang Ganda sa Sarili” show on July 19, while City Hall treasury staff monitored gate receipts.
Cuevas said she decided to stop counting ticket stubs they collected because not everyone was a paying guest. Many people were able to enter the concert venue without tickets, she added or had bought buy-one-take-one tickets.
“We can’t base our computation on the ticket stubs that we collected. We would have to ask the organizers exactly how much they earned,” Cuevas said.
The organizers earlier paid P5,000 for a special mayor’s permit. The City Council initially agreed to waive the 10-percent amusement tax if TSE Live would donate P10,000 each to three beneficiary organizations identified by the council. Then the council changed its mind. /UP Cebu Intern Julienne Hazel Penserga
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