The Municipal Local Government in Paoay, Ilocos Norte helped ease the tax burden of the Project Affected Persons (PAPs) for the infrastructure subproject, Rehabilitation of Nalasin-Sungadan-Langiden Farm to Market Road.

PAPs are persons or individuals whose property, business, or livelihoods have been affected by the infrastructure funded by the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).

During the pre-implementation stage of the FMR project, the Paoay LGU asked for the consideration and generosity of the PAPs to donate and/or waive their rights over the portions of land which will be included in the FMR’s right of way. Consultation meetings were held with the FMR’s 109 PAPs on September 2, 2015 and October 27, 2016. Fortunately, all of them agreed to donate and/or waive their rights over the portions of their lots included in the FMR’s right of way.

Driven by its desire to give something back to the people, the Paoay LGU thought of a way to reward the PAPs in another way – by annotating the certificates of title and the tax declarations of the PAPs to reflect the portions donated to the FMR’s right of way.

Real property tax is a tax prescribed by the Local Government Code of 1991 computed based on the assessed value of the real property. By annotating the PAPs respective land title and tax declaration, the real property taxes paid by the PAPs are consequently reduced.

According to Mr. James Galano of the Paoay LGU, the annotations of the land titles and tax declarations of the PAPs were completed before the implementation proper of the FMR in March 2017. He added that, by December of the same year, the annotated titles and tax declarations were distributed to the PAPs and their real property taxes were reduced accordingly.

The annotation of the PAPs’ land titles and tax declarations started with the preparation of the Parcellary Map and the tedious process of surveying all 109 of them to secure their consent and signature for the FMR project. The Paoay LGU even went as far as visiting the present residence of land owners or authorized representatives. “Nakarating po kami ng Pangasinan at Manila para lang sa pirma ng mga land owners or representatives,” said Mr. Galano.

The Paoay LGU budgeted Php100,000 for the annotations of the land titles and tax declarations, most of which was spent for notarial services. The Paoay LGU credited its generous PAPs and the Registry of Deeds for the successful annotation of the certificates of title and tax declarations.

Paoay LGU’s annotation practice for its PRDP FMR is now being replicated in its other FMR projects. Mr. Galano pointed out that the key to replicating this practice is an honest to goodness consultation with the people and the emphasis on the benefits of the PAPs in the long run.

The Rehabilitation of the Nalasin-Sungadan-Langiden Farm to Market Road in Paoay, Ilocos Norte is the first municipal-led subproject in Ilocos Norte under the PRDP. It has a total length of 4.9 kilometers and is worth Php67,393,000. Its rehabilitation started on March 27, 2017 and was completed on August 30, 2019. (Dessa Estrada, RPCO1 InfoACE)