By Lito Rulona
THE capitol is bent on auctioning off buildings and machineries of Pilipinas Kao Inc. in Barangay Solana, Jasaan, Misamis Oriental today.
If plans don’t miscarry, the auction would take place at the capitol grounds today amid strong objections by Pilipinas Kao that figured in a legal dispute with the provincial government over some P631.5 million in real property taxes.
Pilipinas Kao however filed another motion before the 18th branch of the Regional Trial Court yesterday in a last-ditch effort to stop the capitol from auctioning off its property.
The court has yet to rule on the petition.
Capitol lawyer Cecilia Faelnar told The Gold Star Daily that the capitol is prepared to accept bids today.
“Interested bidders have already made inquiries regarding the process. This is going to be the biggest auction made by a local government in the history of the province. Daghan na ang mitawag nga sila intresado nga mo-participate sa bidding,” Faelnar said.
Pilipinas Kao lawyer Leo Nolasco filed a five-page “extremely urgent motion to resolve” in an effort to convince the judge to order the provincial government against pushing the scheduled auction through. He said the court needed to make a decision in less than 24 hours from yesterday.
Nolasco noted that the court has not resolved Pilipinas Kao’s “urgent motion for clarification” filed this Feb. 14. The “urgent motion” was filed after the court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) that supposedly did not cover today’s scheduled auction.
Judge Dennis Alcantar has yet to issue any order at presstime.
But Alcantar earlier set another hearing on the case today so the capitol could present its witnesses.
“PKI pleads this Honorable Court once more to resolve the Urgent Motion for Clarification soonest. As it is PKI’s chances of availing of its other legal remedies to enjoin the scheduled auction are close to nil. Considering the time constraints, if PKI is unable to elevate this matter to the higher courts in the remote event of an adverse ruling by this Honorable Court, PKI would have to resort to extremely onerous remedies such as praying for annulment of the auction sale or exercising its right of redemption, both of which would require PKI to incur huge amount of expenses. This could force the company to shut down,” part of Nolasco’s latest motion reads.
Faelnar, for her part, said the provincial treasurer strictly followed the stages required by law prior to today’s scheduled auction in order to afford Pilipinas Kao due process.
“The legal procedure in the collection of tax delinquency was compiled by respondents and was admitted by PKI in its petition. The stages of collection of delinquent taxes was a very long and expensive process, including the publication in the newspaper of the notices of delinquencies and the Notice of Public Auction,” she said.
On Monday, PKI asked the court to allow it to present Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) Director General Lilia de Lima to strenghten its plea to stop the capitol from auctioning off its property.
Nolasco said the firm would testify that Pilipinas Kao is a Peza-accredited firm that is wrongly being taxed by the capitol.
The judge has yet to rule on this, too, at presstime.
Disclaimer
Mindanao Gold Star Daily holds the copyrights of all articles and photos in perpetuity. Any unauthorized reproduction in any platform, electronic and hardcopy, shall be liable for copyright infringement under the Intellectual Property Rights Law of the Philippines.
