MANILA, Philippines?The Supreme Court has ended the Pasay City government?s attempt to collect more than P1 billion in real estate taxes from the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA).

The high tribunal reversed a Court of Appeals decision that upheld the city?s right to impose real estate taxes on properties owned by the MIAA under the Local Government Code.

?We declare the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Pasay properties of the Manila International Airport Authority exempt from real property taxes imposed by the City of Pasay,? read the decision penned by Justice Antonio Carpio.

?We declare void all the real property tax assessments, including the final notices of real property tax delinquencies, issued by the City of Pasay on the NAIA [Ninoy Aquino International Airport] Pasay properties? except for the portions the MIAA has leased to private parties,? it said.

The CA in October 2002 ruled that the MIAA lost its tax exemption under its charter upon enactment of the Local Government Code in 1992.

The Supreme Court, however, said it had resolved in July 2006 that the MIAA?s lands and buildings were exempt from real estate taxes when the Parañaque City government tried to levy taxes on the MIAA as well.