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[av_heading heading=’Plaint vs Newks referred to DILG ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – The Department of the Interior and Local Government will investigate former mayor Monico Puentevella in light of a complaint filed against him in connection with a 2015 tax ordinance.
The complaint was first filed at the Office of the President.
After receiving a response from the camp of Puentevella, Malacañang referred the case to the Interior department.
“Considering that the parties have already complied with this Office’s Order dated 09 March 2017, let the records of the case be forwarded to the Department of the Interior and Local Government,” read part of the Office of President’s order dated July 12.
The Palace acknowledged the Interior department as the “investigating authority” in this case, “pursuant to Section 1, Rule 5 of Administrative Order (AO) No. 23, series of 1992, as amended by AO No. 159, series of 1994, and AO No. 66, series of 1999,” the latest order read.
Samuel Montoyo of Save Bacolod Movement, Inc. accused Puentevella of grave abuse of authority and gross neglect of duty for implementing a tax ordinance declared null and void in 2015.
Puentevella served as city mayor from 2013 to 2016.
Montoyo had said he filed the complaint on Dec. 16, 2015 not only as a nongovernment group’s officer but also as a taxpayer.
Puentevella signed City Ordinance No. 08-14-700 in November 2014. The tax ordinance increased real property taxes (RPT) “from the rate of no less than 300 percent up to 1,600 percent,” said Montoyo.
Despite being “oppressive, confiscatory and unjust,” the ordinance was enforced, he said in his complaint.
Proxima Centauri Realty and Development Corp. and Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. then filed separate petitions against the Puentevella administration before the Department of Justice.
They asked the Justice department to declare the ordinance unconstitutional, “[a] remedy granted under Section 187 of the Local Government Code,” said Montoyo.
On Feb. 18, 2015 the department released a resolution declaring the ordinance null and void, and “thus without any legal force and effect,” he said.
Puentevella filed a motion for reconsideration, but the Justice department denied this in a resolution dated April 7, 2015.
The then mayor “did not appeal or obviously failed to make [an] appeal [before] the Court of Appeals or the Office of the President,” Montoyo said.
Despite the finality of the Justice department’s order, “Puentevella continued to enforce and collect the RPT under the said nullified ordinance,” he stressed.
Montoyo said this act “[establishes] sufficient ground for administrative liability under Section 190 of RA (Republic Act) 7160.”
“Likewise, such administrative violation…under RA 7160, Section 190 will further prove his (Puentevella)…culpable violation of the Constitution, oppression, and undue exercise or grave abuse of authority,” said Montoyo./PN
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