Aquino issued EO 27 in February 2011 that stopped the provincial government from collecting the unpaid real property taxes. Talabong blamed the EOs for the loss of an estimated P5 billion, representing 85 percent of the assessed real property taxes, condoned by Aquino. LUCENA CITY―The Quezon provincial government is bent on putting the 735-megawatt coal-fired thermal power plant in Pagbilao town on the auction block to collect the P690-million real property tax that it said is due the local government. TE is a joint venture of Japanese firms Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Marubeni Corp. Aside from the Pagbilao plant, it operates other generating facilities acquired from the United States-based Mirant Corp. in 2007. In 2010, the province tried but failed to collect P6.1 billion in back taxes from TE despite a Supreme Court decision favoring the collection by the Quezon and Pagbilao governments.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer August 08, 2016 17:59 UTC