CEBU CITY – An attempt of the Capitol to take away and sell, as real property tax payment, the electric poles and transformers the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) owns in Consolacion town will not see light.
The Regional Trial Court (RTC) has stopped the attempt with a ruling that says the province cannot collect the P9.9-million tax assessment against Veco because the items aren't real property to begin with.
"In this jurisdiction, there is no special law specifically declaring and defining electric poles (and the transformers attached to them) as real property," Judge Sylva Paderanga, presiding over the 16th RTC branch in Cebu City, ruled.
The case stemmed from the civil suit Veco filed against the Province after the latter issued a Notice of Sale of Delinquent Real Property over the items.
Provincial Treasurer Roy Salubre issued the notice last November 26, 2009, six months before the 2010 local and national elections.
The notice also announced the poles and transformers would be sold in an auction the following December 15, leaving Veco with no system to distribute electricity to its consumers in the town then led by mayor Avelino Gungob. Gungob has since been replaced by Teresa Alegado.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia ordered a criminal and administrative complaint against Gungob at the anti-graft office. Gungob, on the other hand, called on town mayors to junk Garcia during the polls.
Veco, in the civil suit, challenged the legality of the tax imposition.
Citing provisions of the Civil Code, Veco argued that poles and transformers cannot be subject to real property taxation because it is not classified as immovable as listed in articles 415 and 416 of the civil code.
Instead, it said, poles are considered "personal property" because these can be "transported from place to place without impairment to the real property to which they are fixed."
Judge Paderanga agreed.
"To the mind of the court, it does not take a special skill, training or knowledge to determine that indeed electric poles and transformers aren't fixed to the land in such a way that they cannot be separated therefrom without impairing and destroying such land," she said.
She added that these can, without a doubt, be "transported from place to place without impairment of the land" and, as such, are "beyond real property taxation and levy."
The province lodged a motion for reconsideration but the court dismissed it for lack of merit. (KNR of Sun.Star Cebu)
