VOL. 9 ISSUE 184 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016
www.edgedavao.net
EDGEDAVAO
P 15.00 • 20 PAGES
Serving a seamless society
SUPREME COURT RULES. Members of the Konsensya Dabaw held a candle-lighting protest on Monday night to protest the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. However, the Supreme Court yesterday decided to allow the burial of the late dictator by a vote of 9-5. Lean Daval Jr.
DADS HEED COA; MULL TAX REVISION City reminded of failure to raise real property taxes By TIZIANA CELINE S. PIATOS, FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA
T
HE Davao City Council will review valuation of real properties in the city after the City Assessor’s Office proposed to increase real property taxes. This is in reaction to the Commission of Audit (COA)’s calling the attention of the Davao City Government on its failure to increase the Real Property Tax (RPT) since 2005. Committee on Finance chairperson Danilo Dayanghirang told reporters yesterday that the lawmakers are looking into the proposal to revise the schedules of fair market value of real properties in the area. Dayanghirang however cautioned the assessor’s office against increasing real prop-
erty taxes up to 2,000 percent. “We cannot proceed with the proposed 2,000-percent increase because it is simply very much higher compared to the usual 10-percent increase,” he said, adding that a such a move will not be acceptable to businessmen and investors. Dayanghirang also complained about the little increase in the city’s local taxes for this year, only reaching 3.7 percent, a reason why there is minimal increase in the 2017 budget. He estimated that If only local taxes had been increased in the past years, the 2017 budget could have easily reached P7.2 billion, instead of just P6.9 billion. He said that due to the
failure of the city government to effect any tax increase since 2005, Davao City has been considered to be friendly to investors. New investors are exempted from paying local taxes for three years under the Davao Investment Promotion, in an effort aimed at enticing more businessmen and capitalists to invest in the city and neighboring areas in the Davao Region of five provinces and six cities. Meanwhile, Councilor Bernie Al-ag said it is now time for the city council to review RPT increase as the city government is mandated to have an additional of 10-percent increase every three years in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Code
(LGC) Sec. 219 of LGC states that the provincial, city or municipal assessor shall undertake a general revision of real property assessments within two years after the effectivity of the code and every three years. “Davao City is actually one of the highly urbanized cities in the Philippines with low RPT rates,”Al-ag adding COA has kept on reminding the city government on its failure to revise tax rates which is required by law.. Al-ag also mentioned that the council will just decide on how much the increase will be as long as it follows the maximum of 10-percent increase. It can be recalled that the
F DADS, 10
SC okays Marcos burial at LNMB By ALEXANDER D. LOPEZ
V
adlopez0920@gmail.com
OTING 9-5 with one inhibition, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday ruled that former President Ferdinand Marcos can be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani or Heroe’s Cemetery.
The SC’s decision has ended the decades of debates and argumentations as to the legality of the intention of the family of the late President to allow his burial at the LNMB. The decision also resulted to mixed reactions and burst of emotions on Tuesday – as those who are against the burial at LNMB expressed dismay, grief and anger – while
hundreds of Marcos supporters who were gathering outside the SC building rejoiced, sang and danced with the decision. Justices who voted for the Marcos burial include Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Presbitero Velasco Jr, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo,
F SC, 10