Issues I raised during Senate Committee Hearing

Issues I raised during Senate Committee Hearing

I recently attended the Senate Committee Hearing of Senator Panfilo Lacson. The hearing was focused on the proposed bill “An Act Instituting Reforms In Real Property Valuation And Assessment In The Philippines” which is authored by Senators Lacson, Lapid, Angara, and Biazon.

During the deliberation, I raised some concerns regarding Section 16 of the proposed bill which deals with the preparation of scheduled of market values. It says, inter alia, that assessors “shall prepare a Scheduled of Market Values (SMV) for the different classes of real property and special purpose property situated within their respective local government units, in consultation with the concerned Sanggunian, pursuant to the valuation standards and specifications set” by the National Valuation Authority. In the same sections it says in part that that National Valuation Authority “shall review and approved the SMV within ninety (90) days upon receipt of the same, otherwise, the said schedule shall be deemed approved.” It adds, “the approved Schedule of Market Values shall be sent back to the concerned Sanggunian for enactment of ordinance for the general revision of real property assessments within ninety (90) days from receipt thereof. After the lapse of the said period, the ordinance shall be deemed enacted and thereafter, a general revision of real property assessments shall be made in said local government units using as basis the approved SMV.”

I questioned the rationality of this section by asking the committee to consider the role of the Sanggunian concerned. I said that if the phrase “in consultation with the concerned sanggunian” would be tantamount to getting the comments only of local legislators without public consultation, then I strongly oppose it. On matters like this, it is the interest of good governance that the concerned sanggunian cannot decide unilaterally without a rigorous public consultation on the proposed SMV. It is the responses of the people to this public consultation that the concerned sanggunian can base its impartial and judicious decision whether or not to enact the corresponding ordinance for the general revision of real property assessments in its respective jurisdiction.

I emphasized that the power to review and give approval of the SMV should not be lodged exclusively to the National Valuation Authority. Otherwise, this would bring frustration to the sanggunian and worse embarrassment because it would make a mockery out of what the sanggunian is responsible of doing. It must be noted that in this case the sanggunian has the legislative authority to enact the required ordinance and this is not within the ambit of authority of the National Valuation Authority.

Senator Lacson though assured me that the concerned sanggunian will not be chained. However, I still believe that the Section in question should be better phrased for clarity’s sake and to give proper respect to the sanggunian on matters of legislation that are within its authority.