Cebu Doc told: Pay by Friday

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Treasurer’s Office served the final demand letter for unpaid taxes last Friday to Cebu Doctors’ Hospital (CDH) and Cebu Doctors’ University (CDU).

City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva said that the letter asked the management of the two institutions to pay unpaid taxes amounting to millions of pesos.

Aside from CDH and CDU, the city is also in a legal battle with other proprietary schools and hospitals.

In 2007, CDH and CDU together with Southwestern University (SWU), Sacred Heart Hospital (SHH), Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT), Cebu North General Hospital (CNGH) and Velez General Hospital (VGH) filed a civil case against the city, asking the court to declare the city’s amended tax ordinance null and void.

The ordinance reclassifies proprietary schools and hospitals as service-oriented and specifically identifies them as taxable industries.   

Oliva said that a demand letter will be served also to other proprietary schools and hospitals once they will finish verifying their records.

The CDH and CDU management have been given only until Friday by the City Treasurer’s Office to settle their obligations.

Oliva said that if the two institutions will fail to pay their taxes within the given period, the city will issue a certificate of delinquency together with the warrant of levy.

A warrant of levy could affect business since the property will be put on hold and will eventually be possessed by the government.

The City Treasurer explained that when a warrant of levy is issued, they will publish it and the auction will follow for the acquired property.

The owner, however, will be given one year to redeem the property and must settle their obligation to the city government.

Oliva, in a previous interview, said that she may be dismissed from service if she fails to issue and execute warrants for levy.

Last month, majority of the said proprietary schools and hospitals tried to negotiate with the city officials for the payment of tax dues.

City officials insisted on collecting business and realty tax from the proprietary schools and hospitals for the reason that the city government renders basic services to them like garbage collection, police, traffic management, firefighting and others.

But the said institutions continue to refuse to pay business taxes even after mayor Tomas Osmeña threatened to pull out the basic services. — Elly Bolonos/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)