Abalos denies getting back at Wack Wack

MANILA, Philippines - Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur Abalos Jr. denied yesterday reports he slapped the Wack Wack Golf & Country Club with a P33-million tax assessment in reaction to the results of the election for the club’s board of directors.

“I have to tell you that I was very disappointed by this article, one without an author named at that, which includes very unpleasant allusions,” he wrote The STAR, referring to the article that appeared Tuesday.

He said the claim that the club received on June 28, a day after its elections, the assessment in connection with the recently completed renovation of the famed championship East Course “is totally false and misleading.” Abalos’ father, former Commission on Elections chief Benjamin Abalos Jr., was defeated by Philip Juico for the top post.

Abalos said the assessment, a copy of which was provided The STAR, was sent and duly received by the club on June 15, two weeks prior to the board elections.

He said the P33-million assessment covers a period of 10 years of back taxes, including that for 2010, “so clearly, this is not a spur-of-the-moment decision to spite the club.”

Abalos said the assessment “was not impelled merely with the renovation of the East Course alone.”

“It is not my way to take vengeance and throw the weight of my public office around against those whom I or my family do not like,” he said.

Abalos attributed Mandaluyong’s successes and accolades to the city’s business-friendly environment.

He said the city has been given the top spot in registering properties by the World Bank, while the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) ranked the city number one in terms of quality of life.

Abalos said for 2009 alone, Mandaluyong experienced a steady influx of investments to the tune of P42.25 billion, and led in simplifying the business registration processes along with a few other pilot cities.

He said these achievements make Mandaluyong a “Tiger City,” a tag given in 2003 by the Department of Trade and Industry, AIM, and the SGV Policy Center.