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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Visayas devider Excessive real property tax hike destructive to Iloilo City economy, Riverside Group warns

Excessive real property tax hike destructive to Iloilo City economy, Riverside Group warns

Published Aug 29, 2025 12:28 pm
SKYLINE of downtown Iloilo City. (Tara Yap)
SKYLINE of downtown Iloilo City. (Tara Yap)
ILOILO CITY — After taking the Iloilo City government to the Supreme Court (SC), the Riverside Group of Companies warned that excessive hike in real property tax (RPT) is destructive to the economy.
“It will run Iloilo City’s economy to the ground,” warned Atty. Martin Pison, stockholder and corporate secretary of the Riverside Group.
 “We are barely surviving. I don’t know how long this could be sustained,” Pison told Manila Bulletin.
The Riverside Group filed a petition before the SC last March 2024 as its pleas went unanswered by former Mayor Jerry Treñas, whose administration pushed the 300 percent RPT hike with a new tax ordinance in 2023.
While a 40 percent RPT reduction was implemented since 2024, the Iloilo City Council is currently debating whether to extend it until 2028 as it is set to expire by this year.
Allies of Mayor Raisa Treñas, the former’s mayor’s daughter, claimed that extending reduced RPT rate can negatively impact services of the city government.
Pison said the RPT’s real impact is on the local economy.
Pison reiterated that the RPT’s negative impact will result into more closures of small businesses and loss of jobs and livelihood.
Even with the 40 percent reduction implemented since 2024, Pison said that Riverside Group’s RPT jumped to 765 percent to as high as 6,200 percent.
Pison cited an example that one of its companies had to pay P3.3 million in RPT under the 2023 tax ordinance. In comparison, the RPT payment was only P376,000 in the years before.
The Riverside Group is one of the companies of the Pisons, who leased family-owned properties to major developers for the past 20 years. Hotels, restaurants, BPO buildings, condo buildings, and private schools have been built on their properties.
This astronomical RPT hike forced Riverside to increase its rent, but Pison said it was not proportional to what the Iloilo City government charged.
“The family absorbed the losses. We wanted to keep local businesses (renting with us) open,” said Pison.
One of Riverside Group’s tenants will soon close as it can no longer afford the slight increase.
The Iloilo City government under the past and present Treñas administrations defended the 300 percent RPT increase since the last valuation was done in 2006.
Pison acknowledged the need to increase RPT but he said the Iloilo City government should have properly consulted local businesses for a fair RPT rate.
Pison again lamented the lack of consultation with the Riverside Group.

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Iloilo City Real property tax
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