Group chides banana firm for trying to dodge tax obligation

DAVAO CITY – A local environmental group here is backing the city government’s opposition of a banana plantation’s position that it should not pay mandated-environmental tax.

Interface Development Interventions Inc. (IDII) filed Monday a motion for intervention with the Regional Trial Court (RTC) against DOLE Philippines Stanfilco Division, which had earlier filed a petition, arguing that the imposition of environmental tax on its operations was "excessive, oppressive, confiscatory, arbitrary and discriminatory."

IDIS Executive Director Chinkie Peliño-Golle believed the banana plantations "do not only wish for the provision to be invalidated but hopes the Watershed Code be declared unconstitutional."

In an interview, Peliño-Golle said DOLE Philippines-Stanfilco was assessed in 2015 environmental tax amounting to P3,324,825.

But she noted that while the company complied with the law by paying the environmental tax annually, it also filed petitions before the RTC each time, questioning its validity and the local government’s power to implement the Watershed Code.

She said IDIS was intervening on the cases filed by the banana company since 2015.

Peliño-Golle added the city was asking for "only a small amount from their profits."

"It is unfortunate that instead of working together to manage our resources sustainably, they refuse to contribute," she added.

The group also stressed that the implementation of the Watershed Code was an "effective sustainability mechanism to protect and manage the city's resources within its eight watersheds."

In 2007, the local government of Davao enacted the Watershed Code, which mandated the collection of environmental taxes to fund the conservation and rehabilitation of watersheds.