Nasugbu vice mayor Mildred Sanchez on Tuesday said listed firm Roxas and Company Inc. (RCI) has fallen behind on its property tax payments in Batangas.
“We have already contacted our treasury office and found the business a tax delinquent. We have requested the treasury office to prepare the necessary documents,” Sanchez said, without giving more details.
Sanchez made the remarks following RCI’s refusal to provide compensation to some 50,000 Batangas farmers and individuals affected by land development activities across three of its huge landholdings.
“They haven’t paid anyone. As far as I know, none of us have received any payment from them,” she said.
In a regulatory filing earlier this week, RCI said while it has a duty to ensure that affected individuals are vacated peacefully in its landholdings, the company has “no other financial obligations to the latter.”
Around a thousand Batangas residents gathered at Makati’s Freedom Park last week to protest RCI plans to evict the 50,000 from Haciendas Palico, Banilad and Kaylaway in nine barangays.
The Batangas farmers have called for a more equitable distribution of land and more compensation for the agrarian reform beneficiaries or ARBs and the informal settlers who will be displaced.
The PSE, after months of protests from farmers, sought clarification from RCI its plans are material information affecting the future of the company.
RCI said it has not planned anything on the contested property “until our company receives further instructions from the Department of Agrarian Reform.”
This response was taken to mean that the 50,000 individuals and informal settlers would be evicted sans compensation from RCI.
