City rules can’t trump laws — SC
LOCAL ordinances cannot overrule the Constitution or any laws, the Supreme Court (SC)said after voiding a Quezon City rule that prevented the Manila Seedling Bank Foundation, Inc. from using a reclassified property.
The full court in a July 30 decision said the amended Quezon City zoning ordinance enacted in 2003 by the Quezon City Council could not overrule Proclamation No. 1670 by the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos giving the foundation the right to use a seven-hectare property owned by the National Housing Authority.
The court said the city does not have the authority to reclassify the property for a use different from that originally declared by law.
It also said the city was barred from foreclosing and seizing the property for nonpayment of real property tax because the owner, NHA, is tax-exempt.
“But since this exemption does not extend to the beneficial users of NHA’s properties, such as the foundation, then the city may satisfy its tax claim not through a foreclosure, but by directly assessing the Foundation,” it added. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana