Gotesco mall continues operations amid tax row

MANILA, Philippines – The Gotesco Grand Central Mall in Caloocan City continued its operations on Monday despite a row with the city government regarding the supposed non-payment of more than two decades’ worth of real property taxes. "Sa ngayon, status quo [For now, we will maintain the status quo]," said laywer Trixie Angeles, counsel for Gotesco Investment Inc., in an interview on dzBB radio. Angeles maintained that her clients will not pay the P722.3 million in real property taxes demanded by the city government, which claimed that the mall owner had failed to pay the said taxes for 23 years. In the interview, Angeles insisted that the city government could not charge Gotesco Investment Inc. with the multi-million pesos in supposed unpaid taxes because the company only bought the mall property from the city government in September 2008. "Di namin babayaran (ang real property tax), kasi last year lang kami nagmay-ari [We will not pay the real property taxes because we only acquired the mall property last year]," Angeles said. But in a separate dzBB interview, Caloocan City Mayor Enrico Echeverri said that Gotesco Investment Inc. only bought the property, but failed to pay the taxes for the property and for the mall establishment. "Tatlo kasi ang obligasyon nila: Bayaran ang lupa, ang real property tax sa lupa, at real property tax sa building. Yung sa lupa lang ang nabayaran [They have three obligations: Pay the property, the real property tax for the property, and the real property tax for the building. They only paid the first one]," Echeverri said. Extortion? Caloocan Regional Trial Court Acting Presiding Judge Oscar Barrientos of Branch 126 earlier awarded the said property to the city government. According to a statement posted on Caloocan City’s website, court Sheriff Nicholas Ramos on Monday last week served the notice to vacate within three days to Gotesco management. The deadline expired Thursday last week, but mall authorities refused to give up the property. The court sheriff also served the writ of possession to the mall on Friday, but the mall officials and tenants refused to vacate the mall. In a press statement issued Thursday, Gotesco Investment Inc. said that the move to take-over the mall smacked of corruption from the city government, saying that a witness detailed that some Caloocan City officials received "sacks upon sacks of money in relation to the issue." "This may be a simple case of graft and corruption. For if some people see as an extortion move Caloocan’s collection from Ever Gotesco of P722.3 million in alleged back taxes, what then is this takeover move?" said Ever Gotesco lawyer, Argee Guevarra. In Monday’s radio interview, Angeles also accused Echeverri of being “selective" in demanding real property taxes from business establishments in the city. This was denied by Echeverri, as he fended off insinuations that he is setting his eyes on acquiring Ever Gotesco’s rival, Victory Mall. "Wala akong interes sa Victory Mall [I am not interested in Victory Mall]." Writ of injunction In Gotesco Investment Inc.’s statement, it added that it may file charges against Barrientos for ordering the city government’s takeover of the mall. It also scored the city government for supposedly disregarding the writ of injunction issued by the Manila RTC branch 11, which holds jurisdiction over Gotesco Investment Inc. A writ of injunction is issued to party to require or restrain him from committing a particular act. "Guevarra said that Caloocan City blatantly chose to disregard the Manila RTC injunction after its motion for reconsideration was denied, when it filed on January 16, 2009 a petition for a writ of possession of the mall property before Barrientos’ sala," it said. 722 schools Meanwhile, Echeverri assured that he is bent on having Gotesco pay for the P722.3 million worth of unpaid real property taxes, adding that the money may be used to build schools. "Ang isang classroom po ay isang milyon. Mga 722 classrooms po ang matatayo namin [A classroom costs P1 million, so we can create some 722 classroms with the money]," he said. In the press statement, Echeverri also assured that the welfare of the mall’s tenants and stall owners will "be taken into consideration." "The owners should not fear of losing their current stalls within the mall as we plan to enter into a new contract with them," Echeverri said. - GMANews.TV