PARAÑAQUE City Mayor Edwin Olivarez is facing plunder and graft complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman over a P453.37-million settlement in real-property taxes in favor of his godfather.
Jonathan Bernardo, a former Barangay San Dionisio councilor, questioned Olivarez’s move to forego the 2013 tax payment of the Wenceslao Group—D.M. Wenceslao & Associates Inc., Wendel Holdings Co. Inc., Fabricom Manufacturing Corp. and Aseana Holdings Inc.—in the amount of P453,374,700.68.
He urged Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to place Olivarez and 12 other local officials under a preventive suspension, saying the group of companies’ board chairman was the mayor’s godfather.
City Administrator Fernando Soriano, in a press statement, said: “Since the matter is in the hand of the Office of the Ombudsman, we submit to the honorable Ombudsman to resolve the case.
“But we would like to inform the public [that] the honorable Supreme Court has approved the compr mise agreement of the two parties.”
Bernardo had alleged Olivarez, along with councilors Rufino Allanigue; John Ryan Yllana; Merlies Antipuesto; Vincent Kenneth Favis; Florencia Amurao; Brillante Inciong; Roselle Nava-Tan; Joan Villafuerte; Maritess de Asis, and Jacqueline Bustamante-Mendoza; city legal officer Rommel Frias, and officer in charge city treasurer Anthony Pulmano committed plunder and graft for giving the Wenceslao Group due benefit in November 2013 for some construction projects in the mixed-use reclaimed area in Parañaque City.
Based on the complaint, Olivarez and the 10 councilors passed a resolution granting a reduced real-property tax assessment per square meter from P12,000 to P6,000 even if the Wenceslao Group had a pending case in the city government, and that there was no public consultation.
The city assessor’s office, however, came up with tax declarations of P12,000 per square meter, Bernardo said.
The Wenceslao Group settled its unpaid taxes in 1998 under protest, challenged the assessed value of P12,000 per square meter and insisted the assessment must only be at P6,000 per square meter.
In November 2013, the city council granted the Wenceslao Group a lowered real-property tax “with bad faith and with precipitate haste,” for passing a resolution in three days without any consultation.
A 62.68-percent discount was granted, he said, adding D.M. Wenceslao and Associates Inc., Wendel Holdings Co. and the Asean Holdings Inc. paid only P269,892,166.81in real-estate taxes.
He said the group of companies must pay P723,266,867.49.
According to Bernardo, the Parañaque City mayor gave special treatment to the Wenceslao Group, whose chairman, Ding Wenceslao, was his godparent and was his campaign donor in the May 2016 local election.
The complaint read: “Suffice it to state that the above discounts constitute as sufficient evidence that the current agreement approved by the SP is manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the City of Parañaque.
“To think that the discount granted was even more than the 50 percent indicated in the Sangguniang Panglungsod approved compromise agreement a whopping 62.68 percent discount!”