PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said he will run after power plant operators under contract with the National Power Corp. that during the previous administration failed to pay real property taxes and penalties.
Duterte declared that he will no longer tolerate corrupt acts, including the condonation of more than P7 billion taxes on the revenues of a power plant, saying he will go as far as to kill the directors of tax-evading firms.
“They have waived billions in taxes. Their game involves billions. We have a receivable from an energy plant of seven billion, it was waived. For what reason, I really do not know. And only one man can waive it. You waive seven billion, for what? So, rich people can refuse to pay and airplanes can be allowed.”
In two separate occasions, the Aquino administration issued executive orders condoning all liabilities and penalties for real property tax on property, machinery, and equipment used by independent power producers (IPPs).
Duterte was apparently referring to Executive Order 27 issued by Aquino in 2011, through which the government condoned a portion of P6 billion in back taxes owed by the Pagbilao Power Station in Quezon, which supplies energy to almost a tenth of Luzon, to save it from an auction.
The local government of Pagbilao and the provincial government of Quezon had pressured Team Energy Corp., the power plant owner, to pay real estate taxes, penalties and other back taxes from 1997 to 2010 amounting to P6 billion.
Otherwise, the local government said it will not renew Team Energy’s business permit, while the municipal government threatened to auction the 735-megawatt coal-fired plant in Isla Grande, Pagbilao.
The Pagbilao Power Plant is capable of producing 16.8 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per day or more than six billion kilowatt hours a year, and its output is fed into the Luzon grid via the 230-kilovolt transmission line and the Napocor sub-station in Tayabas, Quezon.
Aquino also issued Executive Order 173 in 2014 which restrained all local government units from imposing real property taxes and penalties on power plant operators that are under contract with Napocor.
The measure aims to shield IPPs from being assessed real property taxes by local governments that do not recognize the tax exemptions extended by state-run Napocor under their build-operate-transfer contracts.
Malacañang has taken the position that real property taxes have been contractually assumed by Napocor.
Duterte said that corruption will not continue in his administration, otherwise he is ready to kill even directors just to make this country better.
“Everybody will just have to behave. Don’t worry, you will see. I can kill one, two or even three directors, then this whoreson country will behave,” Duterte said.
“I’m telling everybody: Do not do it in my time, because I promised the Filipino a clean government. It will be a clean government. No corruption at all,” he added.