ANGELES CITY – The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) is now urging the city government to collect its real property tax (RPT) shares from the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) which owns the reverted military base lands now known as the Clark Freeport Zone (CFZ).
Ruperto Cruz, PGKM chair, said yesterday that the city government should go slow with its planned RPT increase on local residents, and instead concentrate on “getting its rightful share” of RPT from the BCDA to increase its revenues.
The 4,400-hectare CFZ main zone straddles the boundaries of this city and nearby Mabalacat City. Cruz noted that the city has never levied RPT on the BCDA since it was enacted into law in 1992. He said the city government should now levy RPT on the BCDA to level the playing field.
The PGKM stand came in the wake of the planned increase of the RPT levelled by the city government which landowners here have denounced as “too exhorbitant and oppressive.”
Unfair competition Cruz also asked the city government to “seriously look into the stiff and unfair competition” the Clark Freeport is foisting on the city’s business community which, he said, violated the provision of Republic Act 7227 or the Bases Conversion and Development Act to “spur the parallel development of the areas contiguous to Clark.”
“Instead of catalysing the development of the city, Clark is neutralizing it to the point of retrogression,” Cruz said.
Clark Development Corp. (CDC), which oversees the CFZ, has allowed the competition of investor-locators with local businessmen and traders as well realtors and land developers. Cruz observed that during the time of the
US military bases, the local economy blossomed because the US military contributed greatly to its growth.
He said US military servicemen and their dependents took residence off base which resulted in the mushrooming of subdivisions in the city like Diamond, Mt. View, Don Bonifacio, Hensonville, Carmenville, Plaridel 1 and 2 subdivisions, and others. Cruz said Barangays Balibago, Malabanias and Anunas prospered because they are adjacent to the CFZ, formerly Clark Air Base.
Fields Avenue became an entertainment capital despite its notoriety mainly because it was patronized by US servicemen then, he said. But now, he noted, the CDC has allowed locators to develop housing areas inside the CFZ which directly compete with local subdivisions and local developers.
Cruz said the CDC has also allowed small and medium entrepreneurs inside the CFZ which also competes directly with local traders in the city. “You can even buy a siopao in Clark now,” he said.
“The mandate of RA 7227 for the Freeport is that of being labor- and capital-intensive and export- oriented nucleus of industrialization, complemented by an aviation complex,” Crus said. “Not a hodge-pudge of eateries, gas stations, subdivisions, duty-free shops and theme parks.”
