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Saturday, December 31, 2005
City takeover of Cebu port? 'Illegal'
CEBU CITY -- The mayor's pronouncement that Cebu City Hall may end up operating the port is not only farfetched, but also without legal basis, two officials said Friday.
"That eventuality is farfetched at the moment," said Representative Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north) who wrote the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) Charter.
With City Hall's seizure of the CPA real properties and the failed tax negotiations between the two parties, del Mar expects that the matter would be resolved only once the Court of Appeals decides on the case.
Del Mar is also hoping that the final amount the court orders would validate the amount of realty taxes the City is collecting from port authorities.
He stressed, however, that CPA is "the appropriate specialized agency to handle port operations."
"And this authority is attached to the National Government, not to any local government unit," he told Sun.Star Cebu Friday.
Nilo Rivera, CPA division manager for the Port Management Office, said the planned takeover is illegal and will only create confusion.
The CPA Charter states that only the CPA can manage, operate, maintain and develop ports and port facilities in the entire Province of Cebu.
Can afford
The City doesn't even have jurisdiction over traffic matters, maintenance of roads and lightings of streets within the port zone, added Rivera.
The CPA can afford to pay the P175 million in taxes the Cebu City Government is demanding, but it insists it is exempted from local taxation. A case is pending on this matter.
The case now pending with the High Tribunal was filed by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), former owner of Cebu ports before these were turned over to the CPA.
The PPA sought exemptions from local government taxes.
CPA filed another case, which the CA has yet to decide on, when the Regional Trial Court did not issue a writ of preliminary injunction against the decision of the City Government to auction CPA properties last year.
Rivera revealed that the CPA allocated funds in previous years for taxes to the City Government.
But the payment was deferred, pending decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals on the cases.
Refund
If the CPA is ordered to pay taxes, Rivera said that only then would it be safe to pay taxes, as the Commission on Audit or anybody could no longer raise questions.
Rivera thinks that the CPA would not be able to get a refund if it pays taxes now and gets a favorable court ruling later.
At stake in the dispute are properties that used to stretch almost 5,000 meters from Mahiga Creek (the boundary between Cebu City and Mandaue City) to Aduana.
But this was reduced to about 3,838 meters because the area near the Compania Maritima building is now part of the South Reclamation Project, while the port at the back of the old Bureau of Customs building now belongs to the Malacañang sa Sugbo.
Rivera said the CPA owns Piers 1, 2 and 3; Berth 1 to Berth 7 (commonly known as the Cebu International Port), with an estimated area of 10 hectares; and the berthing areas used by Trans Asia Shipping Lines, Aboitiz Transport Service, Sulpicio Lines and Supercat. (GAC/EOB/Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(December 31, 2005 issue)
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