Court stops auction of Petron properties in Bataan refinery

Petron Corp., the country’s largest oil refiner, said a local court has  stopped the Bataan provincial government from auctioning the company’s properties in the Bataan refinery.

Jose Jesus G. Laurel, Petron legal and external affairs vice president, said Petron has secured a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Bataan Regional Trial Court (RTC) effectively stopping the provincial treasurer of Bataan from the auction sale of the company’s machinery and equipment at its Bataan refinery on Oct. 17 for allegedly unpaid real property taxes from 1994 to the first half of 2007.

Laurel said the Bataan RTC ruled that the public auction of the company’s properties by the Bataan provincial government is premature and violates Petron’s right to due process.

The ruling, he said, noted that the validity of the revised property assessments has yet to be determined by the Local Board of Assessment Appeals (LBAA), and later the Central Board of Assessment Appeals (CBAA).

He said the court took note of the decision of the CBAA that the bond posted by Petron is a valid substitute for a cash deposit to cover its alleged tax liabilities under protest.

The company’s legal counsel said even before seeking to stop the planned auction sale, Petron has appealed the “revised” assessment to the LBAA.

“The issuance of the TRO affirms our position that the provincial treasurer’s actions have no legal basis and even violates the Local Government Code,” Laurel said. “We have always maintained that the revised assessment amounting to P1.7 billion made by the province of Bataan is erroneous and excessive.”

He said company records will show that Petron has been religiously paying its real property taxes, even advancing payments to the province of Bataan.

Since 1994, the company official said they have paid P1.675 billion in real property taxes based on assessments made and approved by the province.

The Bataan RTC added: “The repercussions of this eventuality (sale of Petron properties), considered vis-à-vis the nature of the business of the plaintiff which is highly imbued with public interest, and which is vital to the economic life of the nation, are so grave and foreboding as to be foolhardy to be even attempted, especially so when, on the other hand, the interest of the Province of Bataan is amply protected by the surety bond in the event that it is later found that the enjoining of the auction sale is not proper.”

Petron earlier sent a letter to the Provincial Treasurer pointing out that the increased assessment for back taxes violates the Local Government Code; it does not comply with the law, implementing regulations and tax collection procedures; and it even included items that should have been excluded for realty tax purposes.

Petron’s Bataan refinery supplies nearly 40 percent of the country’s total fuel requirements including vital strategic industries such as power, manufacturing and transport.