SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya—Mayor Jerry Pasigian of Alfonso Castañeda town said Tuesday the local government would not renew the business permit of Casecnan Water and Energy Co. Inc. this year if the firm does not pay its Real Property Tax arrears in time.
“We will be forced not to renew their business permit for 2017 because of their existing delinquencies,” Pasigian said.
The mayor said that in 2014, CWECI, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co. and operator of the Casecnan Multi-Purpose Irrigation and Power Project, refused to pay its RPT delinquency of more than P1.7 billion to the provincial government.
The RPT is a tax owner of real property need to pay yearly so LGUs will not auction off their property, Pasigian said, under Title II of the Local Government Code or Republic Act 7160.
RPT are shared in certain percentage rates by the host province, city or municipality, and barangays.
CWECI owns and operates the CMIPP, a 150-megawatt hydropower generation facility composed of two impounding dams and a power plant, connected by a pair of 26-kilometer diversion tunnels.
Pasigian said CWECI’s RPT payment in 2014 was stalled owing to the company’s compliance to the Executive Order 173 issued by then-President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.
EO 173 required the reduction and condonation of RPTs and interest/penalties assessed on power generation facilities of independent power producers under Build-Operate-Transfer contracts with government-owned and controlled corporations.
“Our share from the RPT taxes are big sources of our local revenue to sustain the infrastructure development and livelihood of our fellow villagers belonging to the Bugkalot tribe,” Pasigian said.
Most of the town’s RPT share goes to its Special Education Fund, which provides subsidies for teachers and funds for the construction of schools to raise the literacy rate of Bugkalot children in the upland barangays of Lipuga, Pelaway, Lublub, Cauayan, Galintuja and Abuyo.
A portion of their share from the RPT is also used to sustain the livelihood of the Bugkalot families where most of them rely on fishing the “Ludong” species, Pasigian said. Also called “the President’s fish,” the species sells for as much as P5,000 a kilo.
“Now, this fish species can no longer be found in the Taan and Casecnan Rivers because of the drying up of the rivers. Settling this RPT will give our fellow Bugkalots alternative livelihood,” Pasigian said.
It was constructed during the Ramos administration and has been in operation for the last 14 years by diverting irrigation waters from Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino provinces for irrigation of farmlands and to augment the power requirements of Central Luzon.
The project siphons water particularly from the Taan and Casecnan rivers in Alfonso Castañeda through the said diversion tunnels to the Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija, irrigating at least 200,000 hectares of farmland in Central Luzon and the western part of Pangasinan using the water sourced from the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino.