TO ward off a possible domino effect, the Dagupan Electric Corporation will pursue the civil case it filed against the city government of Dagupan and of the municipality of San Jacinto to its full conclusion.

This was disclosed by Dominador Liwag, Decorp manager, who said it has become imperative to ask the courts to declare real property tax assessment made by the two local government units on the company’s electrical poles as “null and void”.

Decorp, he told the PUNCH, is just waiting for summons from the courts that will hear the cases and quickly dismissed speculations that they already backed out.

“Tuloy ang kaso. Let’s just wait for the courts to decide,” Liwag said, referring to the case the company filed against Dagupan but begged off to discuss their legal strategy.

“Mas mabuti na rin yun para malaman natin kung sinong position ang tama,” said Liwag, adding the company will respect and comply with the decision of the court.

Liwag explained that Decorp had filed the case to protect the consumers from shouldering additional burden once the court orders them to pay its taxes for the electric poles.

Nonetheless, Liwag said Decorp is open for settlement, meaning the city will have to withdraw its assessment.

He revealed that Decorp and the city government do meet from time to time, to seek a compromise solution and resolve the issue amicably as he pointed out that the case has not affected their good relationship with the city.

Decorp went to court  when it received  a notice of assessment from the city covering  10 years, demanding that the company pays its real property tax amounting to P4.5 million for its 6,417 electrical poles erected all over the city.

The city claimed that the company’s electrical poles and the transformers are considered as machineries attached to the soil and, therefore, are subject to real property taxes as stipulated in the local government code.

Decorp, however, countered and said it is not liable to pay as demanded by the city, and refuted the claim that its electric poles and transformers are subject to RPT coverage.

The city government, in turn, answered the complaint by attaching a counterclaim.

Decorp  also filed a civil case against the municipality of San Jacinto which followed the example of Dagupan also assessing the company’s electric poles in the town for real property tax demanding P3.5 million purportedly for its unpaid real property tax on its electrical poles positioned all over the town.

He warned that once required to pay, there would be an impact on the power rates for owners of businesses consuming at least 100 kilowatts per hour paying bigger electric rates.

“We don’t want this to happen, so we are trying to stop them (city government) and ask them to withdraw their assessment,” said Liwag stressing that the company wants to mitigate the rates of its electricity distribution.

He said, like the case filed against the city, the company wants San Jacinto to stop its assessment of Decorp’s electric poles and has also asked the court to declare the same as null and void.

“We are not questioning their authority to impose taxes. I hope they understand that we are just protecting our consumers.” — AQL

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