SC stops QC tax hike

Herbert Bautista

The Supreme Court has indefinitely suspended the implementation of a Quezon City ordinance that increased land values and corresponding real property taxes after 22 years.

In a press briefing in Baguio City on Tuesday, Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te said the justices meeting en banc granted the temporary restraining order (TRO) sought
by the Alliance of Quezon
City Homeowners’ Association against the city government.

Unlike the TRO released by lower courts, the order issued by the high court does not have a prescription period.

“The court issued a (TRO) effective immediately and until further orders from the court, enjoining respondents from implementing, collecting upon, or enforcing Quezon City Ordinance No. 2556,” Te told reporters.

The ordinance covered lands, buildings and other permanent structures whose fair market value would be raised by as much as 500 percent, resulting in sharp increases in real property taxes starting 2017.

The magistrates directed the respondent city officials led by Mayor Herbert Bautista to file their comment within 10 days.

In an interview, Bautista said the city government welcomed the TRO but maintained that it followed due process in passing the local tax measure.

“[It went] from the approval of the assessors of the (revenue) districts to consultations conducted by the city council, to the required publication mandated by law,” the mayor told the Inquirer.

Approved by the council and signed by Bautista in December last year, the ordinance called for the adjustment of the city’s fair market values (FMVs), which had remained unchanged since 1995, to reflect the prevailing market prices.

This was after the Commission on Audit directed the city government last year to revise the FMVs. The finance and interior departments also called its attention to the matter.

Under the resulting ordinance authored by Councilor Allan Benedict Reyes, taxpayers would be shelling out 39 to 131 percent more than their current payments.

The measure reaped criticism from taxpayers despite the 29 public consultations held and the final adjustments made prior to its approval.

City Hall had to dispel fears that the ordinance would impose a “500-percent” tax increase, and explained that the five-fold increase would only apply to the property values.

Baustista called on the Supreme Court to resolve the issue “at the soonest possible time so as not to hamper the basic service delivery of the city government.”

City Hall projected additional revenues of around P700 million in the first year of the measure’s implementation.