Defensor stands by statement
ANAKALUSUGAN party-list Rep. Mike Defensor today insisted on his warning to Quezon City residents that there is an impending increase in the tax on their residential, commercial or industrial lots under an existing city ordinance.
Defensor, a candidate for city mayor, made the statement in response to claims by the city government, speaking through legal officer Orlando Casimiro, that his warning was “fake news.”
“There is no fake news. I am not a purveyor of falsehood. It is the current leadership of Quezon City that purveys fake news and even uses the media to spread it,” Defensor said.
The mayoral aspirant asserted that there is an existing ordinance (No. SP-2556) approved in 2016 that increased real property values and their taxes.
After the Supreme Court (SC) threw out a homeowners’ complaint challenging the ordinance, the city council suspended the adjustments until 2020, when the council allowed the collection of the increase in the tax on homes, buildings, apartments, and other improvements, he said.
However, the collection of the increase in the tax on lots remained suspended until December 2022, he added.
“That is the basis for my statement that there would be an increase in the land tax and for my appeal for the city government to scrap it permanently in the wake of the still-raging Covid-19 pandemic. Otherwise, I and my vice-mayor-partner Councilor Winnie Castelo will do it if the people of Quezon City elect us,” Defensor stressed.
He pointed out that the Belmonte leadership has already allowed the collection of higher taxes on homes and other improvements starting last year.
“Ask city residents and they would attest to this fact,” he said. He said the Quezon City administration, through Casimiro, claims that under Ordinance No. 2556, only the assessed value of land would increase but not the tax.
“Who are they fooling? If the assessed value of a piece of real property goes up, so does the tax. This has happened already in 2020 in the case of improvements on land. So it is they who are spreading fake news,” Defensor said.
Defensor urged the people of Quezon City and the media to fact-check his statement and the city leadership’s response “to determine who is lying and who is telling the truth.”
“There was nothing wrong with my statement. So I don’t know why city hall is seething with anger,” he said.
