Republic of the Philippines

CITY OF MALABON
Metropolitan Manila
CITY LEGAL DEPARTMENT
7th Floor, Malabon City Hall, F. Sevilla Boulevard, San Agustin, Malabon City
Telephone No.: 281-4999 Local 5006 & 5009

Date :

To:

This refers to your letter dated _________________, regarding the applicability of

Section 270 of the LGC requesting for an exemption from payment of Real Property
Taxes(RPT) on the ground that the period to collect delinquent Real Property
Taxes(RPT) shall be within five(5) years from the present date. We regret to deny your
request.
We begin with the argument that taxes are generally imprescriptible. This legal
theory well argues that taxes will not prescribe against the government because of the
general principle of taxation that taxes are lifeblood of the government and their
prompt and certain availability is an imperious need 1. We are pleased to inform you
that the wisdom behind the provision of the Local Government Code of 1991, on the
prescriptive periods to collect is to compel local treasurers to promptly perform their
duty to collect real property tax for the benefit of the taxing authority, the local
government unit. If the local treasurer has been sending notices of delinquency and/or
reminder letters for the payment of delinquent real property tax preparatory to the
application of administrative and/or judicial remedies in the collection threof as
provided for by law in observance of due process, the delinquent real property may be
collected even beyond the five-year period[2] Records disclosed that the city treasurer
issued a demand letter[3] against you for the payment thereof.
The provisions of Section 270 had been discussed in this Bureau’s 2nd
Indorsement dated July 24, 2009, to the Assistant City Treasurer for Operations of Cebu
City, as follows:
“Apparently, the wisdom behind the provision of the Local Government Code of
1991, on the prescriptive periods to collect is to compel local treasurers to promptly
perform their duty to collect real property tax for the benefit of the taxing authority, the
local government unit. The prescriptive periods were provided to enforce the collection
of real property tax within a specific time. Thus, no action for collection, whether
administrative or judicial, shall be instituted after the lapse of the five-year or ten-year
periods, as the case may be. Please take note that under the ten-year prescriptive period,

1
CIR vs Pineda[21 SCRA 105, 110(1967)]
2
Letter from Bureau of Local Government Finance regarding Prescriptive Period for the Collection of Real Property
Taxes.
3
Annex “A”
fraud or intent to evade payment must be alleged and supported by clear and
convincing proof.
“There have been clarifications earlier made by this Bureau that if the local
treasurer has been sending notices of delinquency and/or reminder letter for the
payment of delinquent real property tax preparatory to the application of
administrative and/or judicial remedies in the collection thereof as provided for by law
in observance of due process, the delinquent real property tax may be collected even
beyond the five-year period. It is only when the local treasurer neglected or deliberately
failed to perform his/her mandated duties giving rise to the prescription of the period to
collect that the taxpayer may validly invoke the provision on the prescriptive period.
Otherwise, taxpayers may circumvent the law by not paying their taxes at all and will
just wait for the lapse of the periods to collect.”
This Bureau hastens to add though that the phrase “shall be collected” under
Section 270, underscores the mandatory character to collect the real property tax within
five years or ten years, as the case may be, including the use of administrative and/or
judicial remedies. The phrase therefore connotes actual collection.
However, this provision on prescriptive periods in the collection of real property
tax is not meant to shield a real property owner-taxpayer from payment of delinquent
tax when despite meaningful efforts exerted by the local treasurer to collect, the tax
remains unpaid and unsettled.
In this instant case, the City Treasurer has sufficient record and/or documentary
evidence to establish that a demand was made against you to settle your tax obligations
but you neglected it and evaded to pay the same.

Very truly yours,

ATTY. RYAN CARLO ESCALADA

City Legal Officer