VICE Governor Jose Mari Pelaez is questioning why the Provincial Assessor's Office reclassified five parcels of land registered under the UC-1 Corporation for taxation purposes without the approval of the Provincial Board (PB).
During the regular session of the PB on Monday, Pelaez called out Provincial Assessor Marilyn Legaspi for bypassing the board the land reclassification of the property where Seven Seas Water Park and Resort now stands.
Last Monday, the provincial legislative body learned that the ordinance passed by the municipal council of Opol that reclassified the five-hectare property from agricultural to commercial was not approved by the PB.
In 2015, the Municipal Council of Opol passed an ordinance reclassifying five parcels of land in Zone 1, Barra, Opol, Misamis Oriental, registered under the UC-1 Corporation from agricultural to commercial.
Edgar Olaco, Opol's municipal assessor said the move was also in line with the town's Comprehensive Land Use Plan (Clup) from 2014 to 2022 which identifies the properties of UC-1 as a commercial eco-tourism area.
Olaco admitted that the municipal assessor’s office did not take into account the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) classification of the area as timberland saying they based their land use plan merely on the land title issued by the Land Registration Authority (LRA).
Pelaez questioned the validity of the land reclassification saying it did not go through the scrutiny of the PB.
"You mean you will just act on any ordinance coming from municipalities without any corresponding concurrence coming from SP? It's not going to be valid without our approval," Pelaez said.
"Please give me a PB approval of the ordinance. What is the status of the property now, there is no action coming from us when we're supposed to be the approving authority of all property reclassification. Currently, we are not acting on any request for land reclassification, all land reclassification requests are actually pending," he added.
"Next time Engineer Legaspi, if you will do reclassification, you have to check if there is approval coming from the SP because according to HLURB (Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), the approving authority of all land reclassification is the PB," Pelaez said.
Legaspi insisted that one of the mandates of the provincial, municipal assessors’ office is to give tax declaration based on its actual use of the property, which is commercial.
Legaspi said one of its office's mandates classify, appraise, and assess all real properties within its territorial jurisdiction as the basis for taxation. She said the Municipal Council ordinance was also basis to affirm that the land is already reclassified.
Pelaez said the matter shall be further discussed to determine why the provincial assessor proceeded with the reclassification without the SP's approval.