The City Assessor’s Office was able to complete the assessment of real properties in fourteen of the city’s one hundred twenty eight barangays as part of the implementation of the local government’s aggressive tax mapping initiative.
City Assessor Maria Almaya Addawe stated that it will take a longer time to complete the programmed barangay wide assessment of real properties in the remaining barangays, citing the difficulty of undertaking the same compound by the lack of manpower by the said office.
She disclosed that the local government has 7 existing assessors who are complemented by 8 job order personnel aside from the 2 additional employees that will be hired this year, thus, the said office is undermanned in implementing the aggressive tax mapping efforts.
The city assessor pointed in conducting the assessment of real properties, the assigned assessors will have to conduct the inspection of the declared properties, draw the floor plans of the structures, make the necessary computations among other related duties and responsibilities that is why it will surely take a longer period of time for the City Assessor’s Office to be able to assess the real properties in the different barangays.
According to her, the assessors are assigned at least 9 properties to assess in one day which reflects the difficulty of the job assigned to them in the implementation of the city’s aggressive tax mapping campaign to ensure that real property owners will be paying the right taxes to the local government.
She expressed her gratitude to the city officials and residents for their understanding in the implementation of the city’s tax mapping campaign because it is their job to look for properties that should be assessed for the owners to be able to settle their tax obligations to the local government.
Addawe claimed that the local government projected that the assessment of real properties should be available within 14 days after the conduct of the inspection of the property being requested to be assessed and declared so that owners will already start paying their tax obligations to the city to help in deriving additional revenues that will be used to improve the delivery of basic services and implement development projects beneficial to the greater majority of the populace.
In 2020, the local legislative body passed an ordinance that approved the revision of the 20-year old schedule of market values for real property taxes on land where 70 percent of the same was implemented by the local government last year while the 30 percent balance will be implemented this year which will pave the way for the full implementation of the said measure.
Republic Act 7160 otherwise known as the Local Government Code of the Philippines provided that local governments shall update their respective schedule of market values for real properties every 3 years to ensure that the taxes that will be collected from real property owners will be attune with the prevailing situation and for the same not to be outdated.
Further, the Code empowered the City Assessor’s Office to be in charge of the crafting of an updated schedule of market values for real property taxes where the same must be submitted and approved by the concerned local legislative body prior to its implementation in the fiscal year where the same must be enforced by the local government unit.
