Monday, May 11, 2009 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
CLARK FREEPORT -- Different groups and institutions in the province have passed and signed a resolution imploring President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and internal revenue officials to put a five-year moratorium on the increase of land valuation in the province.
The resolution advocating for a five-year suspension on the zonal valuation of land in Pampanga came in the light of the previous attempt by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to implement a new zonal valuation scheme in Pampanga.
However, businessmen and public officials led by Pampanga Chamber of Commerce (PamCham) chairman Levy Laus and Mayor Oscar Rodriguez have expressed their opposition to the new scheme, as it would raise the value of land in some areas of the province from 40 percent to as high as 700 percent.
Serious lobbying by concerned groups led by Laus and Rodriguez earlier convinced Finance Secretary Margarito Teves to extend the suspension of the new zonal valuation until a new consultation is set and a new zonal valuation scheme is approved in cooperation with various realty property and business sectors here.
But for the groups who signed the recent resolution, a five-year suspension on any land valuation in the province is enough time to arrive on a much better and well studied valuation scheme.
The resolution was signed Mayor Marino "Boking" Morales (Mabalacat), Marco Nepomuceno of the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), Jeannie Del Rosario-Ng of the Clark Investors and Locators Association (Cila), Alexander Ocampo of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders' Associations (Creba), Francisco Villanueva Jr. of the Association of Business Chambers in Central Luzon (ABC-CL), first district Representative Carmelo Lazatin, Board Member Tarcicio Halili, Fredie So of the Angeles Fil-Chi Chamber and Industry, Carmen Mctavish of the Greater Clark Visitors Bureau (GCVB) and Renato Tayag of the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon (ADCL) last May 7.
In the said resolution, the groups said the new zonal valuation is deemed “exorbitant, excessive, and oppressive” as it would have lasting and severe effects on the province as well as the growth of local industries.
“The new zonal valuation scheme will also impede the development of low-cost housing projects to address the growing backlog especially for low income families,” the groups said in the joint resolution.
The groups are also asking that the status quo in the zonal valuation of land in Central Luzon “be maintained and enforced” by the Department of Finance (DOF), BIR and other related agencies pending the determination of a reasonable increase through proper due process and in consultation with various sectors.
First district Board member Tarcicio Halili, founder of the Metro Angeles Realtors and former national chairman of the Board of the Philippine Association of Realtors, said five years is enough time for the province and Central Luzon to cope with the planned new zonal valuation.
“Five years is enough time for consultation and study and will also provide enough buffer time for establishments and sectors here to prepare themselves for the change,” Halili said, stressing that the supposed to be implemented zonal valuation has not undergone proper consultation and therefore is being met by serious public outrage.
He said they are optimistic that the President and other national agencies will head their call for a five-year suspension of the new zonal valuation scheme.
“If the new zonal valuation will not be shelved for at least five years, we see that it might become a hindrance to the global competitiveness of the province and its dream of becoming a mega-logistics hub,” he said.
Copies of the said resolution are set to be sent to the Office of the President, DOF, BIR Central Luzon and other agencies. (Ian Ocampo Flora)
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