Councilor defends tax relief ordinance, slams critic

MANILA, Philippines—A councilor has cried foul over a court petition filed by Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim that called for the nullification of a recently approved ordinance that granted tax breaks to Smart Communications Inc.

Councilor Joel Chua particularly criticized city legal officer Renato de la Cruz, who acted as Lim’s counsel in the filing of the petition.

“The city legal officer should refrain from issuing scathing statements against the city council. Instead, he should confine himself to studying the local government code so that he would be able to provide good and sound legal advice to the mayor,” Chua said in a recent interview with the Inquirer.

Chua added that De la Cruz himself implicitly approved the ordinance. “There was a countersign from the city legal office below the signature of the vice mayor, which presupposes that [the ordinance] went through his office for review even before it was passed on third reading,” he said.

On May 18, Lim, through De la Cruz, asked the Manila Regional Trial Court to declare as invalid and unconstitutional Manila Ordinance No. 8229.

The ordinance exempted Smart from paying the local franchise and real property taxes on the machinery or equipment it uses in its cell sites in the city.

It was approved by the city council on April 26 with the approval of Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, then acting as mayor for Lim who was on vacation in the United States.

Domagoso and the city council was named as respondent in Lim’s petition.

According to Lim, the ordinance would deprive the city government of much-needed revenues.