Quezon City Councilor Victor Ferrer Jr. of District 1 has filed a measure to suspend the ordinance raising the fair market values of real properties and basic unit construction costs—by as much as 500 percent—until 2022.
Freezing the implementation of Ordinance No. SP-2556 of 2016 for another two years would help QC constituents “to recover from the effect of the [recent] significant increase in the prices of commodities,” Ferrer said.
“For this purpose, the collection of real-property taxes until December of year 2022 shall be based on the 1996 schedule of fair market value under Ordinance No. SP-397, S-95 and Ordinance No. SP-1521, S-2005,” the councilor’s measure read.
Councilors Franz Pumaren of District 3, the council’s majority floor leader, and Eric Medina and Donato Matias of District 6 have co-introduced Ferrer’s proposal.
The committees on ways and means, and laws, chaired by Ferrer and Pumaren, respectively, are now studying and deliberating on Ferrer’s measure.
Three years ago, the 37-member City Council passed Ordinance No. SP-2556 mandating an updated schedule of fair market values of land and structures.
The city government justified the increase, saying the last time fair market values were increased was in 1995.
This prompted the Alliance of Quezon City Homeowners Association Inc. to file a petition with the Supreme Court, which issued a temporary restraining order to stop the tax increase of lots and basic unit construction costs.
But in 2018, the high court through Associate Justice Estela Perls Bernabe dismissed the petition of AQCHAI with finality for its “lack of legal capacity to sue.”
Despite the SC’s ruling in favor of the city government, the city council passed an ordinance suspending the higher fair market values for two years, from 2018 to 2019.