Nasugbu LGU seeks halt to financing support for RCI 

The local government of Nasugbu, Batangas, wants Roxas and Company Inc. (RCI) not to get any more financial support until the holding firm pays its alleged overdue real property taxes.

In a resolution transmitted to the Batangas Provincial Board on May 22, the Nasugbu Municipal Council urged the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Landbank of the Philippines (LBP), Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), and private financial institutions, including the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI), Ayala Corporation (AC), Stonebridge Corporation, and the Catholic Church, not to provide financing to RCI until its obligations are resolved.

The Nasugbu Municipal Council claimed that RCI has not been paying the real property taxes for its haciendas.

In a letter to RCI on May 13, Nasugbu Mayor Antonio Barcelon warned the company of a possible revocation of its business permit should it continue to fail to settle its real property taxes.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, RCI said that it has "yet to receive any official statement of account, notice, and/or billing from the Nasugbu municipal government or the Batangas provincial government."

Nevertheless, RCI said it is updated with its real property tax payments involving its properties in Nasugbu, which are declared to be exempt from Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law coverage.

RCI has a decades-long land dispute with agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) over its three haciendas in Nasugbu.

In February, RCI claimed victory after the Department of Agrarian Reform equally divided the total of 2,644.45 hectares of land covering the Hacienda Palico, Banilad, and Caylaway between the ARBs and RCI.

“Verily, RCI can now fully enjoy its ownership rights over its 1,619.22855-hectare property; it will retain and receive equitable, just compensation over the properties to be awarded by DAR to the ARBs. The ARBs, on the other hand, can now fully enjoy the benefits of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, as enunciated in the Consolidated Order,” the company said. —VBL, GMA Integrated News