(Editor’s note: This will be of interest to Filipinos in Australia who are registered owners of properties in the Philippines.)
This article is an attempt to warn owners of tax-delinquent properties in the Philippines of the large-scale violations of their rights by local government executives who, in a blatant and egregious fashion, exacted realty taxes that have been proscribed by law and, therefore, not subject to collection.
This nefarious practice has been going on nationwide for over the two decades that the Local Government Code (R.A. 7160) has been in place. The provision that has been honored more in the breach than in the observance thereof is section 270 which reads as follows:
“SEC. 270. Periods Within Which To Collect Real Property Taxes. The basic real property tax and any other tax levied under this Title shall be collected within five (5) years from the date they become due. No action for the collection of the tax, whether administrative or judicial, shall be instituted after the expiration of such period. In case of fraud or intent to evade payment of the tax, such action may be instituted for the collection of the same within ten (10) years from the discovery of such fraud or intent to evade payment. The period of prescription within which to collect shall be suspended for the time during which: chan robles virtual law library
(1) The local treasurer is legally prevented from collecting the tax;
(2) The owner of the property or the person having legal interest therein requests for reinvestigation and executes a waiver in writing before the expiration of the period within which to collect; and cralaw
(3) The owner of the property or the person having legal interest therein is out of the country or otherwise cannot be located.”
Town and city treasurers presumably with the consent of their mayors have been issuing demand letters to lot owners with delinquent realty taxes that they had no business collecting as the five year prescription period has passed. In a cynical exploitation of the general public’s ignorance of the cited provision, they went full steam ahead. And in their innocence, property owners so affected dug into their pockets and paid. Well, now they know!
There is more. LGU’s have been conducting auction sales of delinquent properties many of which carry delinquencies beyond the 5 year prescription period. It is not difficult to imagine that the added years’ delinquencies, illegal to begin with, might have imposed unbearable financial burdens that caused some property owners to lose their lands. Such auction sales should be invalidated and declared illegal with the return of said subject properties to their original owners.