Quezon gov says ‘boxing ain’t over’ on tax powers

LUCENA CITY, Philippines—Quezon’s highest official said the province won’t give up the fight to collect alleged unpaid real property taxes from the owners of a coal power plant in Pagbilao town despite President Aquino’s executive order condoning the taxes and stopping the province from collecting them.

“The boxing is not yet over,” Quezon Gov. David Suarez said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

He vowed to continue efforts to collect P6.1 billion in real property taxes from Team Energy (TE), which runs the coal plant.

“We could not just give up and accept the loss,” said the governor, whose father, Rep. Danilo Suarez, stopped the confirmation by the Commission on Appointments of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima over the tax issue.

The governor said Mr. Aquino’s Executive Order No. 27, which stopped the provincial government from collecting taxes for the power plant, was disadvantageous to the province and the municipality of Pagbilao.

TE repeatedly said the provincial government was barking up the wrong tree in its tax collection effort. It said the real property taxes were owed by National Power Corp. under a deal in 2007 that sold the power plant to TE.

Governor Suarez said the P6.1-billion in taxes allegedly owed by TE would be a big boost to the province’s coffers if collected and would ease the provincial government’s P740-million debt burden.

The Supreme Court, in a ruling in January 2010, ruled in favor of the collection of the taxes by the Quezon and Pagbilao governments.