Tiangco gives Navotas fishport until December to pay P217-M tax

The municipality of Navotas is giving the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA) until December to pay property taxes amounting to P217,241,944.

The municipal treasurer issued the tax assessment after the Court of Appeals turned down the motion of the PFDA disputing the tax debt.

Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco welcomed the appeals court decision, saying the town could use the additional funds. Tiangco said the municipal government had lined up several pro-poor projects that need to be financed. "The P217 million will go a long way in helping improve Navotas’ financial standing," he said.

In effect, the CA has junked for the second time a claim by the PFDA that it is exempted from paying realty taxes to the Navotas municipal government for land occupied by the Navotas fishport.

The decision paves the way for the collection of back taxes amounting to P220 million from 1982 to 1990 from the agency.

In a resolution signed by Associate Justices Salvador Valdez Jr., Wenceslao Agnir Jr., and Juan Enriquez Jr., the appellate court’s 16th Division denied the PFDA motion for reconsideration for lack of merit. The court said the arguments presented by the PFDA were a mere reiteration of their previous claims that the agency was exempted from paying taxes to the local government, it being a national government entity.

"Acting on the motion for reconsideration of the appellant (PFDA), the arguments…are far from substantial as they are merely a reiteration and rehash of the contentions by the appellant in its brief and cannot justify any modification, much less reversal, of our decision dated July 19, 2001," the court said in denying the PFDA motion.

"What the municipal government is claiming is not the taxes derived from ... operating the fishport but only the real property taxes for using the land. Even the PFDA’s charter clearly states that the fishport complex is not exempted from paying taxes on the local government-owned property where the fishport complex is located," Tiangco said.

Tiangco clarified that the Navotas government has never asked the PFDA to pay income taxes. This provision has been affirmed in the first ruling and reaffirmed by the appellate court in its latest resolution.

A lower court had earlier directed the PFDA to pay the local government tax obligations of P220 million, including interest, from 1982 to 1990.