ILOILO CITY – The Supreme Court has junked the petition that questioned the real property tax increase by the Iloilo City government under the administration of Mayor Jerry Treñas.

The SC en banc dismissed the March 2024 petition of the Riverside Group of Companies for failure to follow legal procedures.

The High Court noted it is not in its jurisdiction to resolve the legality of Iloilo City Regulation Ordinance No. 2023-226 which pushed for a 300 percent tax hike that Riverside Group described as “arbitrary, excessive, oppressive, and confiscatory.”

Instead, the SC said that Riverside Group should have filed its petition before the lower courts or proper administrative bodies.

“Procedural rules are not to be belittled or simply disregarded to insure an orderly and speedy administration of justice,” the SC said in its Jan. 28, 2026 decision made public this week.

The SC sided with the Iloilo City government in the implementation of the RPT increase as it took almost two decades to implement when the last land valuation was conducted in 2006.

“The real property value certainly does not remain the same over time. This is precisely the reason why the Local Government Code requires city assessors to undertake a general revision of real property tax embarrassments every three years,” the SC said.

“The taxpayers of the city of Iloilo are already expected to bear substantial changes in the real property taxes due in view of the belated revisions in the properties’ valuation,” the SC added.

The Riverside Group has yet to receive a copy of the ruling but stockholder and corporate secretary Atty. Martin Pison said they will no longer contest the SC ruling.

The Iloilo City government is only implementing 60 percent of the 300 percent increase. A 40 percent discount has been extended until 2028.