Authority, Title, Issuance, Effectivity
- Republic Act No. 6053 is titled “AN ACT AMENDING SECTIONS EIGHTEEN, FIFTY-THREE, FIFTY-NINE, SIXTY-FOUR, AND SIXTY-FIVE OF REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED FOUR HUNDRED NINE, AS AMENDED, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE REVISED CHARTER OF THE CITY OF MANILA, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.”
- The Act is approved on August 4, 1969.
- Section 8 states the Act takes effect upon its approval.
Scope: City of Manila; Local Taxing and Administration
- The amendments apply to the charter framework governing the City of Manila, including its taxation, assessment, and collections functions.
- The Act governs the City’s power to tax and regulate specified businesses and activities through amendments to Section 18.
- The Act governs the City Assessor’s valuation and exemption listing through amendments to Section 53.
- The Act governs the process for adding improvements and correcting assessments through amendment to Section 59.
- The Act governs annual real estate taxation, installment due dates, and delinquency penalties through amendment to Section 64.
- The Act governs distraint, seizure, and public auction sale of personal property for delinquent taxes through amendment to Section 65.
- The Act directs the exclusive use of certain collected moneys for public schools in Manila through Section 6.
- The Act creates an appraisal and disposal committee operating under the City Mayor through Section 7.
Business Tax/Regulation and Cinema License Conditions
- Section 1 amends Section 18 by expanding/clarifying the City’s authority “to tax, fix the license fee and regulate” a broad list of businesses and premises, including (among others) establishments involving potential public safety risks such as those dealing with gunpowder and products thereof and substances likely to cause conflagrations or explosions.
- Section 1 requires that no license shall be granted to any theater or cinematograph unless the applicant agrees to exhibit pictures made in the Philippines to the extent of ten per centum of their annual exhibitions.
- Section 1 provides that any violation of the ten per centum Philippine-picture exhibition condition causes the revocation of the theater or cinematograph license.
- Section 1 conditions certain activities (tanneries, renderies, tallow chandleries, bone factories, candle factories, and soap factories) on compliance with ordinances issued by the Bureau of Health in accordance with law.
City Assessor: Duties, Valuation, and Exemption Lists
- Section 2 amends Section 53 to establish a city assessor in charge of the department of assessment.
- The city assessor and authorized deputies administer oaths connected with valuation of real estate for assessment or tax collection.
- The City Assessor must appraise and value all real estate not expressly exempt, including machines, mechanical contrivances, instruments, tools, implements, appliances, apparatus, and paraphernalia used for industrial, agricultural, or manufacturing purposes.
- Section 2 provides an exemption: appraised industrial/manufacturing/agricultural machinery and paraphernalia are subject to exemption for the first five years of their original purchase or acquisition.
- Section 2 requires the City Assessor to prepare and file with the City Treasurer, before April first of every year, a list of real estate valued as exempt from taxation and a separate list of taxable real estate.
Assessment Updates: December Additions and Publication Notice
- Section 3 amends Section 59 by directing the City Assessor, during the first fifteen days of December of each year, to add to the list of taxable real estate:
- the value of improvements placed upon property during the preceding year; and
- property taxable that has previously escaped taxation.
- Section 3 empowers the City Assessor, after every two years, to revise and correct assessed values of parcels not assessed at their true money value by reducing or increasing assessments as warranted.
- Section 3 requires notice by publication for ten days prior to December first in two newspapers of general circulation published in the city, stating that the City Assessor will be present in the office on the specified days for the purpose of revisions/corrections.
- Section 3 requires written notice to each person whose tax amount will change, by delivering or mailing notification to the last known address of the owner or authorized agent sometime in the month of November.
Annual Real Estate Tax Rate, Installments, and Penalty
- Section 4 amends Section 64 by levying an annual tax of one and one-half per centum on the assessed value of all real estate in the city subject to taxation.
- Section 4 provides that the “additional one per cent real property tax” provided for in Republic Act No. 5447 shall all be retained by the City of Manila notwithstanding Republic Act No. 5447.
- Section 4 provides that real property taxes are due and payable in four equal installments with these due dates:
- March thirty-first
- June thirtieth
- September thirtieth
- December thirty-first
- Section 4 provides that if a taxpayer fails to pay taxes assessed against him on or before the end of a calendar quarter as indicated, he becomes delinquent and is subject to a penalty of ten per centum of the amount of tax due.
Collection: Distraint, Sale, and Surplus Return
- Section 5 amends Section 65 by providing that fifteen days after the tax becomes delinquent, the City Treasurer must prepare and sign a certified copy of records showing delinquent persons, and the amount of tax and penalty due.
- Section 5 authorizes the City Treasurer to seize personal property of each delinquent person not exempt under the next succeeding section, unless redeemed as provided elsewhere in the charter.
- Section 5 authorizes the City Treasurer to sell at public auction—either at the main entrance of the City Hall or at the place of seizure—only so much of the property as satisfies the tax, penalty, and costs of seizure and sale.
- Section 5 requires sale to the highest bidder for cash after advertisement by notice posted for ten days at the main entrance of the City Hall and in a public conspicuous place in the district where the property was seized, stating time, place, and cause of sale.
- Section 5 makes the certified true copy of the City Treasurer’s record of delinquents the warrant for proceedings.
- Section 5 states the purchaser acquires an indefeasible title to the property sold.
- Section 5 requires the City Treasurer, within two days after the sale, to make return of proceedings and spread it upon his record.
- Section 5 requires return of surplus: any surplus over tax, penalty, and costs must be returned to the taxpayer on account of whose delinquency the sale was made.
Use of Proceeds: Public Schools Exclusively
- Section 6 requires that all moneys realized from ordinances enacted under Section 1 (the amended business-tax/license authority) and all moneys from the real estate tax under Section 4 be devoted exclusively to the maintenance and operation of all public or government owned schools in the City of Manila.
- Section 6 specifically directs that the funds be used for primary, intermediate, and secondary schools.
- Section 6 provides a teacher pay entitlement effective as of July first, nineteen hundred sixty-nine:
- basic pay of three hundred fifty pesos a month, plus
- longevity pay of ten pesos a month for every five (5) years of teaching service in Manila.
Appraisal and Disposal Committee for Property
- Section 7 creates an appraisal and disposal committee consisting of:
- the City Mayor as chairman; and
- the City Engineer and the City Auditor as members.
- Section 7 requires the committee to appraise all surplus and unserviceable property—both immovable and movable—worth at least one thousand pesos.
- Section 7 mandates that surplus and unserviceable property meeting the value threshold be disposed of at public auction.
- Section 7 requires prior public notice in a newspaper of general circulation for not less than fifteen days before the auction.
Related Laws and Cross-References
- Section 1 ties the regulation of certain industrial activities (tanneries and related establishments) to ordinances issued by the Bureau of Health in accordance with law.
- Section 4 references Republic Act No. 5447 for the additional one per cent real property tax and directs that it is retained by the City of Manila notwithstanding that law.