Friday, July 01, 2005
Mayor asks Arroyo for help in collecting port taxes
CEBU CITY -- Amid all the challenges she has to face, President Arroyo is being asked to help collect local taxes too.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña has sought the President's help in collecting some P168.8 million in taxes that the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) owes the Cebu City Government.
By August, the City needs to pay for the principal and interest of its P6.3-billion loan for the construction of the South Reclamation Project (SRP).
"I asked the President, 'Are we friends or not?' I have to be sure. We're very tight now. Even today we still don't have it. That's the real obstacle and we still have to sell later," he lamented, alluding to the delay in the SRP titles.
Battle
CPA and City Hall are locked in a court battle on whether the agency is supposed to pay realty taxes to the local government.
While it insists it is exempted from paying taxes, being mere custodians of National Government properties, CPA is offering a P25-million assistance to "show goodwill to the City."
Osmeña said the port officials are trying to negotiate with the City Government, but he could not talk about it for now as he will be leaving for Europe this week.
However, he said the move "is silly because the CPA already lost the case."
"Are they going to pay P25 million so they will no longer have to pay us forever? What? They already lost the case," the mayor said.
In previous interviews, Osmeña said he will not agree to any deal as he believes that CPA is "not taking the City Government seriously."
6 months
CPA has only six months left to redeem its properties from the City, which seized over 22 parcels of land, machinery and buildings of the port last December.
CPA, according to the City Treasury Office, still has to pay P168.88 million in taxes. That amount excludes the interest, at two percent per month of the purchase price, from the date of sale to the date of redemption.
The Cebu Regional Trial Court has denied CPA's motion to stop the City from auctioning its properties. (GAC of Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
Click here for a chronology of the crisis.
Click here for the transcript of Arroyo's confession.
(July 1, 2005 issue)
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House plays tape of Arroyo 'chat' in hearing