ACTING Bacolod City Legal Office (CLO) chief Juvy Dioso said Wednesday that she is ready to face charges if there’s any, relative to the two dismissed cases against the ordinance updating the city’s real property tax (RPT) schedule.
Dioso was the one who filed the motion that the city has no more interest in pursuing the case following the decision of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 44 dismissing the petition ad cautelam filed by suspended Mayor Monico Puentevella through former CLO head Rayfrando Diaz II against Proxima Centauri Realty and Development Corp. and Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. (Bredco) before the Department of Justice (DOJ).
This was upon the instruction of Acting Mayor Greg Gasataya to abandon the case in view of the earlier decision of the DOJ that nullified the tax ordinance because of the city’s failure to comply with the required publication of City Ordinance 08-14-700 that updates the schedule of fair market value and real property tax.
RTC Branch 42 also dismissed the case of Subdivision and Housing Developers Association (SHDA) and Chamber of Real Estate Builders Association (Creba) Negros Occidental Chapters against the City of Bacolod represented by Puentevella and other city officials in view of the same decision of the DOJ.
The two courts granted the manifestation of the city to abandon the two cases on the issue of the RPT, following the DOJ ruling on the nullity of the tax ordinance which was considered to be final and executory.
With such developments, Dioso believed that she did not commit mistakes when she represented the city to desert the RPT cases because the court honored the DOJ ruling as final.
“I see to it that all my actions are in accordance with the law,” Dioso emphasized.