The 17th Sangguniang Panglungsod, during its regular session on July 22, 2025. | CDN Photo/ Pia Piquero
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Council has formally taken cognizance of former Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia’s executive order nullifying real property tax assessments issued under the controversial “stamp-override” scheme.
During its regular session on July 17, the City Council gave a procedural nod to Executive Order No. 20, Series of 2025, which voids all real property assessments generated from March 19 to May 8, 2024, using the AS400 system’s override function, allegedly allowing field appraisers to input owner-declared property values in violation of the Local Government Code.
READ: Rosell slams Cebu City tax override probe, Archival orders review
Councilor Dave Tumulak, who sponsored the endorsement, also moved to refer the executive order to the City Legal Office (CLO) for assessment of its enforceability and to recommend any necessary legislative action.
Garcia order targets systemic “fraud”
Garcia’s executive order, issued on June 26, seeks to roll back the override-based assessments, order a full reassessment of affected properties, and establish a multi-agency task force to implement corrective measures and ensure accountability.
“All assessments, reassessments, and amended tax declarations encoded or printed through the AS400 ‘override’ function or bearing the ‘refer to sworn declaration’ stamp from March 19 to May 8, 2024, are hereby declared void ab initio,” the order states.
READ: Cebu City Legal Office blows whistle on massive tax assessment fraud
The order cites findings from the City Legal Office’s April 10 report and a March 17 legal opinion from the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), both of which concluded that city personnel violated Section 202 of the Local Government Code by accepting owner-declared values without reference to the officially enacted schedule of market values.
Garcia emphasized that the scheme not only exposed taxpayers to unjust liabilities and penalties, but also “damaged the City’s credibility and, if continued, could lead to widespread public distrust and financial instability.”
Council
The Council’s endorsement came in response to growing public concern over unexplained spikes in property taxes, with some assessments reportedly increasing by more than 1,000 percent.
Just last week, the Council approved a related motion from Councilor Jose Abellanosa, directing the City Assessor’s Office (CAO) to clarify that no increase in assessed property values is valid unless enacted and published via ordinance.
The advisory is meant to assure taxpayers that any reassessment must follow due legislative process and published market schedules, as mandated by law.
EO mandates
Under EO No. 20, the City Assessor’s Office is given 90 days to complete a 100 percent reassessment of affected parcels. Corrected tax declarations must reflect the values set by the last formally approved market schedule.
Pending further actions, the City Treasurer’s Office has been instructed to suspend the collection of basic real property taxes (RPT) and related surcharges from the affected accounts.
Any excess payments are to be treated as tax credits following Section 196 of the Local Government Code and applicable local ordinances.
Additionally, the order calls for the establishment of a Task Force SMV Integrity, which will be composed of representatives from the City Legal Office (CLO), City Assessor’s Office (CAO), City Treasurer’s Office (CTO), Management Information and Computer Services (MICS), and the Internal Audit Service.
This task force is tasked with overseeing the implementation of the order and submitting weekly progress reports.
The directive also requires urgent system safeguards, including the disabling of the AS400 system’s override function within 24 hours, and the implementation of role-based access controls, audit logging, and the need for executive approval for any future program changes.
Garcia further directed the HRDO to suspend personnel “prima facie identified” as having ordered or benefited from the override scheme, and for the Committee on Discipline and Investigation (CODI) to file administrative charges within 15 days of receiving evidence.
A public help desk and hotline will also be launched to assist affected taxpayers.
Former officials defend override use
Former city administrator Lawyer Collin Rosell, identified in the CLO probe as among those responsible for enabling the override, has called the investigation “malicious and libelous.”
“I was never notified or called… I’m even surprised that there is such a thing as conduct of investigation,” Rosell said. “For lack of notice and due process, the investigation and its output is clearly malicious and libelous if not a ploy for public persecution.”
Rosell argued that no illegal tax increases occurred under his watch, and that all system adjustments were made in accordance with proper procedures.
“Valuation is not taxation… If the value of the property increases, the amount of tax liability follows,” Rosell said. “A mere computer system cannot cause an increase in real property tax due and payment.”
He maintained that all property owners had signed declarations and supporting documents like building permits, and suggested that the CLO report had misrepresented the situation to vilify certain individuals.
Override function
The CLO’s 32-page report, submitted in May, described the override scheme as a “systemic fraud” in which the AS400 RPT system was bypassed to accept declared values without independent verification, thereby circumventing the city’s schedule of market values and denying taxpayers their right to due process.
The override allegedly began in 2022 and was supported by a 2023 resolution from then-local finance chair Jerone Castillo, allowing system upgrades that facilitated the override function.
Mayor Nestor Archival, who succeeded Garcia, has ordered a broader review to determine whether the override stemmed from the administration’s prior proposal to increase real property taxes to support a P100-billion budget.
While Archival stopped short of calling it fraud, he acknowledged that the override “appeared to be deliberate,” citing the need for credentials or technical access.
Legal remedies
As part of EO 20, the CLO is tasked with submitting legislative proposals to the mayor for a tax credit program, which will be endorsed to the Council for urgent enactment. A fiscal impact report is also expected from the City Treasurer’s Office to assess how the voided assessments may affect Cebu City’s finances.
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