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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Visayas devider Iloilo City gov't faces petition before SC over 300% real property tax hike

Iloilo City gov't faces petition before SC over 300% real property tax hike

Published Aug 22, 2025 05:15 pm
ILOILO City Hall. (Tara Yap)
ILOILO City Hall. (Tara Yap)
ILOILO CITY – A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court (SC) questioning the Iloilo City government’s astronomical 300 percent real property tax (RPT) increase that the past and present Treñas administrations are pushing for full implementation by 2026.
The Riverside Group of Companies publicly confirmed this week that a petition for Certiorari, Prohibition, and Mandamus under Rule 65 was filed last March 2024.
“This is not selfish. When you see something as wrong and it affects so many people, you have the social duty to stop it,” said Martin Pison, stockholder and corporate lawyer of Riverside Group.
The 2024 petition filed before the SC was made public this week after Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu publicly lashed out last Aug. 18 and claimed that the RPT issue was only “politics” and it is destroying the “economic growth” of Iloilo City.
This was echoed by their allies in the Iloilo City Council as they continued to push for the full implementation of the increase in 2026.
“There is no politician in my family. The only thing I know what to do is fight this in court,” Pison told Manila Bulletin in a phone interview on Friday, Aug. 22.
Pison said that Riverside Group decided to go straight to the SC after they did not receive any formal response to his appeal from former Mayor Jerry Treñas, the father of the incumbent mayor.
Pison wrote to Jerry in December 2023 and appealed to the Iloilo City government, which was originally scheduled to implement the increase by fiscal year 2024.
In his letter, Pison warned Jerry of the negative impact of an astronomical rate that could close down businesses, including those renting on its properties.
Instead of a formal response, the Jerry Treñas administration decided to reduce the RPT rate only by 40 percent and implement a 60 percent collection that is supposed to end by this year.
Pison reiterated the lack of transparency as Riverside Group was never consulted prior to the passage of the tax ordinance in 2023.
“The city government claimed they consulted businesses. I don’t know who they consulted, but they never consulted us even though we had one of the biggest lands here,” Pison added.
Riverside Group is one of the companies of the Pisons, who have leased family-owned properties and paved the way for major developments in Mandurriao District over the past 20 years.
Another issue was the 300 percent increase, which tax ordinance author Rex Marcus Sarabia defended, claiming the last land valuation was in 2006.
Pison argued that the rate is too high as it is “virtually confiscatory and oppressive” that could continue to negatively impact local businesses and livelihood.

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Iloilo City Real property tax
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