PB probes Loot on delayed real property taxes remittance

DAANBANTAYAN Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot is facing another investigation before the Cebu Provincial Board for allegedly delaying the remittance of the real property taxes to the provincial treasurer.

Provincial Treasurer Roy Salubre filed an administrative complaint against Loot for misconduct, dereliction of duty and abuse of authority and violation of Section 307 of the Local Government Code, which mandates  officers of the local government authorized to receive and collect taxes and revenues to remit the full amount received and collected to the treasury of such local government unit.

Salubre is also seeking for Loot’s preventive suspension pending the resolution of the case so she cannot influence or threaten witnesses.

In his four-page affidavit, Salubre said  Daanbantayan failed to remit on time the remittance of the share of the Capitol for the months of February 2011 until June 2011.

It was only on March 9 of this year that the town remitted Capitol’s share.

The provincial government sent written and verbal demand to the town’s municipal treasurer but were not heeded.

Salubre said the municipal treasurer only replied that Loot did not want to remit the share of the Province of Cebu and did not sign the checks until these became stale.

Every time Salubre makes a follow-up, the treasurer gives the same reply.

Daanbantayan, like any other town, has been collecting the real property taxes and other revenues in the town.

The provincial government is entitled to 35 percent of these collected taxes and revenues as stated in Section 271 of the Local Government Code of 1991.

Salubre said Loot deliberately, intentionally and blatantly delayed or refused to remit the share of the Province of Cebu in the real property taxes collected by the municipality, a  violation of Section 307 of the Local Government Code.

“No other municipality or municipal officials have acted the way the municipality of Daanbantayan and respondent Mayor Loot did, as the other municipalities have been regularly remitting the share of the Province of Cebu,” Salubre said. /Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus