One of those haled to anti-graft body is Toston

A housing developer is suing six city officials led by City Administrator Walter Toston before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas after they were accused of making a runaround in the issuance of separate tax declarations to legitimize the operations of a subdivision in Tiptip district, this city. Arnel Armamiento, president of JCAD-ALD Realty Corp., developer of Bethlehem Gardens Homes in Tiptip district this city, a Caribbean-inspired complex subdivision, whose project was materialized after it bought a property owned by businessman Restituto Tan of Tantrade Corp. fame. The property where the subdivision was developed has been subdivided into 331 housing units under a pre-selling scheme issued by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) and financed thru Pagibig or through banks. However, Pag-ibig or the financing banks require a separate tax declaration for each lot prior to financing the buyers of the subdivision. When the corporation filed before the Office of the City Assessor of which Toston is the officer-in-charge for the issuance of the tax declaration, the top city official and his subordinates refused to face the corporation representatives. It happened on three instances where no officials entertained the purpose of securing the tax declaration. The action of the city officials including Toston’s subordinates identified as Fe Almene, assistant city assessor and the following members of her staff: Nida Barol, Cecilia Cruz, Engr. Anita Cabrera and Nida Baul, gave rise to the filing of the complaint. All six were indicted before the Office of the Ombudsman for violation of Republic Act No. 3019 and S (a) and (d) of Republic Act No. 6713.

AFFIDAVIT-COMPLAINT

In his three-page affidavit complaint, the JCAD president said after at least three instances to follow up the tax documents, the indifferent and detestable conduct of the city assessor’s office and its staff regarding the corporation’s application has brought damage not only to the company but also to its buyers on account of the unreasonable delay in the release of the tax declarations. Accordingly, 19 buyers of subdivision units applied for a loan before the Bank of Commerce for them to be able to pursue with their purchase. The bank required the release of the tax declarations for each of the buyer’s respective housing units before it will release the amount sought. The bank gave the developer until April 30, 2013 to produce the tax declarations of the 19 loan applicants. It was learned that the Bank of Commerce gave the corporation a loan line of P14 million last November 30, 2012 on condition that the corporation will undertake to deliver the respective tax declarations of the homebuyer loan applicants on or before April 30, 2013 for the bank to release the loan amounts to the respective applicants. With the indifference of the city assessor’s office and its staff, the corporation feared that its application will be at the losing end. As to the 19 prospective home buyers, they also feared that they will not be able to avail of the bank’s loan line arrangement. At the same time, the corporation also signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Pag-ibig which provided for a grant of Budget Allocation for the Takeout of Developer’s Assisted Housing Loan. A total of 34 buyers opted to avail of Pag-ibig Fund with its loan portfolio amounting to P29,373,000.00. Under the MOA, one of the documents required for the release of the loan proceeds is the tax declaration for each of the respective buyer’s subdivision unit.