‘Urge airport to pay P1-B taxes’

Lapu-Lapu City’s biggest taxpayers were asked to use their influence and persuade the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIA) to pay P1.7 billion in back taxes to the city government.

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza issued the appeal in last Friday evening’s Taxpayers Night held at the Hoops Dome which honored 22 business taxpayers in the city.

“The city has already won the legal battle at the Court of Appeals…I believe your noble act of dutifully paying the right taxes might let them realize that they too have an obligation to the city,” Radaza told the awardees.

Last July 4, MCIA general manager Nigel Paul Villarete presented a proposed agreement to settle the airport’s real estate tax obligations by P23 million and an additional P10 million in the form of corporate social responsibility.

Radaza rejected the MCIA proposal, saying the amount is a small fraction of the P1.7 billion real estate tax it owes the local government and the additional P200 million from private businesses operating in the airport.

These include P982.12 million in unpaid real property taxes from 1992 to 2012; P582 million in accumulated penalties; and P217.22 million in taxes from the commercial establishments functioning in the airport from 1998 to 2012.

Radaza said they would not abandon their demand for tax payments.

If the city government agreed to the proposal, it will be required to sign a quit-claim and waive any and all action against MCIA.

But Radaza said the airport’s unpaid taxes alone can solve the city’s classroom shortage and improve its road network.

“I seek your help in urging your fellow taxpayers to follow you in dutifully paying your taxes,” she told the awardees.

The mayor thanked the 20 awardees for helping her administration raise revenues for her programs such as road concreting, street lighting, market sanitation, garbage collection and peace and order.

Radaza said she wants to further reduce classroom shortage by half and asked the companies to help them in extending education to the poor. Plaques of appreciation were later given to the awardees (see list page 2). Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza