LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines – Quezon Governor David Suarez announced on Sunday the holding of the auction of the Pagbilao power plant on Wednesday.
Suarez said only a clear proposal from the national government and plant operator Team Energy (TE) to settle the plant’s unpaid P6.1-billion real property tax would convince him to suspend the auction.
“They have to decide quickly. What we’ve been fighting for here is only what is rightfully due to the provincial government and the municipality of Pagbilao. Only three days to go, we will just wait,” Suarez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview in Unisan town Sunday morning.
Webster Letargo, Suarez’s executive secretary, said in a follow up interview early Monday afternoon, that the provincial government and the municipality of Pagbilao have not received any new offer from the plant operator and economic managers from Malacañang assigned by President Benigno Aquino III to resolve the problem.
“There is no new offer yet,” Letargo said over the phone.
Suarez said several big companies have expressed interest in participating in the bidding scheduled for Wednesday in Lucena City.
Asked if he would cancel the auction should President Aquino call for another meeting in Malacañang, Suarez replied: “We should have a strong reason to call off the auction."
The governor said the Quezon province along with the municipality of Pagbilao, TE and national government officials had held several rounds of negotiations on how to amicably settle the back taxes.
“But the plant operator and the national government have yet to offer us something concrete. Unless they give us a new one in black and white, which will not be disadvantageous to us, the bidding is definitely a go,” Suarez told the Inquirer.
The 735-megawatt coal-fired thermal power plant is located in 200-hectare compound on Isla Grande in Barangay Ibabang Polo in Pagbilao, facing Tayabas Bay.
In February, Aquino stopped the first scheduled public auction of plant properties after he called Suarez for a meeting in Malacañang.
During the meeting, Aquino brought up scenarios—such as the ballooning of the country’s national debt, loss of trust by foreign investors, similar actions by local government units— if the local governments of Quezon and Pagbilao proceeded with their planned action to collect the back taxes.
But Suarez said that despite their talks with the Aquino government, the provincial government and Pagbilao municipal government have remained resolve to collect the taxes.
“We’re grateful to President Aquino in his efforts to help break the impasse. But we have to assert the authority of the local government to collect the taxes due us to meet our financial obligations,” Suarez said.
The governor also assailed the misinformation going around that the plant would stop operations if the bidding pushed through, resulting in a massive power outage in the Luzon grid.
“The plant will continue to operate even if the bidding pushes through and a new owner emerges. There will only be a change of ownership but the daily operation will not be affected,” Suarez explained.
He said the ownership of the plant had already changed hands at least three times and through these ownership changes, the plant continued to generate electricity and earn more than $300 million annually.
The Supreme Court, in its final decision in January 2010, denied the bid of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to exempt Mirant, the former plant operator, from over P1.5 billion in real estate taxes that Pagbilao had been trying to collect from it.
Last December, the Quezon provincial government and the municipality of Pagbilao issued a final notice of delinquency to TE in a bid to collect the taxes that have ballooned to P6.1 billion.
However, the TE management maintained that the tax in question should be addressed to Napocor and not to the plant operator.
In 2007, TE, owned by a consortium of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Marubeni Corp. took over the operation of Pagbilao plant from Mirant.
Suarez said only a clear proposal from the national government and plant operator Team Energy (TE) to settle the plant’s unpaid P6.1-billion real property tax would convince him to suspend the auction.
“They have to decide quickly. What we’ve been fighting for here is only what is rightfully due to the provincial government and the municipality of Pagbilao. Only three days to go, we will just wait,” Suarez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview in Unisan town Sunday morning.
Webster Letargo, Suarez’s executive secretary, said in a follow up interview early Monday afternoon, that the provincial government and the municipality of Pagbilao have not received any new offer from the plant operator and economic managers from Malacañang assigned by President Benigno Aquino III to resolve the problem.
“There is no new offer yet,” Letargo said over the phone.
Suarez said several big companies have expressed interest in participating in the bidding scheduled for Wednesday in Lucena City.
Asked if he would cancel the auction should President Aquino call for another meeting in Malacañang, Suarez replied: “We should have a strong reason to call off the auction."
The governor said the Quezon province along with the municipality of Pagbilao, TE and national government officials had held several rounds of negotiations on how to amicably settle the back taxes.
“But the plant operator and the national government have yet to offer us something concrete. Unless they give us a new one in black and white, which will not be disadvantageous to us, the bidding is definitely a go,” Suarez told the Inquirer.
The 735-megawatt coal-fired thermal power plant is located in 200-hectare compound on Isla Grande in Barangay Ibabang Polo in Pagbilao, facing Tayabas Bay.
In February, Aquino stopped the first scheduled public auction of plant properties after he called Suarez for a meeting in Malacañang.
During the meeting, Aquino brought up scenarios—such as the ballooning of the country’s national debt, loss of trust by foreign investors, similar actions by local government units— if the local governments of Quezon and Pagbilao proceeded with their planned action to collect the back taxes.
But Suarez said that despite their talks with the Aquino government, the provincial government and Pagbilao municipal government have remained resolve to collect the taxes.
“We’re grateful to President Aquino in his efforts to help break the impasse. But we have to assert the authority of the local government to collect the taxes due us to meet our financial obligations,” Suarez said.
The governor also assailed the misinformation going around that the plant would stop operations if the bidding pushed through, resulting in a massive power outage in the Luzon grid.
“The plant will continue to operate even if the bidding pushes through and a new owner emerges. There will only be a change of ownership but the daily operation will not be affected,” Suarez explained.
He said the ownership of the plant had already changed hands at least three times and through these ownership changes, the plant continued to generate electricity and earn more than $300 million annually.
The Supreme Court, in its final decision in January 2010, denied the bid of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to exempt Mirant, the former plant operator, from over P1.5 billion in real estate taxes that Pagbilao had been trying to collect from it.
Last December, the Quezon provincial government and the municipality of Pagbilao issued a final notice of delinquency to TE in a bid to collect the taxes that have ballooned to P6.1 billion.
However, the TE management maintained that the tax in question should be addressed to Napocor and not to the plant operator.
In 2007, TE, owned by a consortium of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Marubeni Corp. took over the operation of Pagbilao plant from Mirant.
No comments:
Post a Comment