BIR set to hold public hearing on zonal values of Bulacan towns

By Orlan L. Mauricio

MALOLOS CITY—It’s all systems go for the scheduled public hearing on Wednesday for the proposed revision of zonal values of real properties in Bulacan covering nine municipalities and two component cities under the jurisdiction of BIR-Revenue District Office No. 25B (East Bulacan). The public hearing was organized and will be supervised Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

RDO-25B covers the cities of Meycauayan and San Jose Del Monte, and in the municipalities of Angat, Doña Remedios Trinidad, Marilao, Norzagaray, Obando, San Ildefonso, San Miguel, San Rafael and Sta. Maria.

RDO-25B District Officer Atty. Celestino C. Viernes is calling on all interested residents, independent private appraisers and local officials in their jurisdiction to participate in the forum.

Asst. Revenue District Officer Nina Diana U. Federizo said barangay captains of the biggest villages were also invited to provide information on the grassroots levels to complement the data from the local assessors in the two cities and nine towns included in the Zonal Value revision.

The public hearing will be a whole-day event starting at 9 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. The venue for the hearing, KLIR Waterpark Resort, is located less than 1,000 meters from the NLEX-Sta. Rita Exit, in Kabilang Bakood, Sta. Rita, Guiguinto. The public hearing on the proposed revision of Zonal Values of real property is mandated under Section 6(E) of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, in compliance with Dept. of Finance Order No. 6-2010 and Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO No. 31-2019).

“Lamentably, Napoles failed to justify the belated filing of her memorandum,” the court said in the resolution penned by Associate Justice Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega. Division Chairperson Rafael Lagos and Associate Justice Maryann CorpusMañalac concurred the decision.

Napoles and Valdez are facing plunder, as well as seven related graft cases, involving P57 million kic backs from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.

Napoles’ lawyer asked the court to consider the testimony of Benhur Luy in the graft cases that the amounts supposedly given to Valdez as kickbacks did not come from PDAF.

Napoles’ lawyer also stated in the memorandum that the alleged kickbacks did not come from checks issued by the Department of Budget and Management.

“More so, she prayed for her acquittal from the crime of plunder for failure of the prosecution to prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” the court noted.