Seoul, South Korea – The Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) Executive Director Niño Raymond B. Alvina shared the Philippines’ insights and perspectives on property valuation and taxation at the World Bank’s Land and Property Valuation Learning Week on 22 May 2023 at the Namsan 1 Hall, 2nd Floor of Grand Hyatt Seoul in Seoul, South Korea. Participating in the forum were regional and international experts and fellow policymakers and practitioners from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam on land and property valuation infrastructure and systems.  

In the said forum, Executive Director Alvina discussed the Philippines’ emerging economy with the real estate industry as one of the key economic drivers for the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth.  

Alvina shared with the international delegates the roles of government agencies involved in land administration and management and highlighted the challenges in property valuation and taxation for a comprehensive change in policy environment and operations. These challenges include the multiple valuation bases used by the government, property valuations use for governmental purposes, outdated valuations resulting in costs and foregone revenues, no sole agency responsible for valuation and assessment, and absence of comprehensive real property electronic database.  

“The proposed Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform (RPVAR) will ensure that the Schedule of Market Values (SMVs) are reliable and in accordance with internationally accepted valuation standards”, Alvina added.  

Other key highlights of the RPVAR, are the use of updated, internationally compliant standards, mandate the BLGF to provide a dedicated institutional support for the LGUs through the Real Property Valuation Service (RPVS), rollout the use of Real Property Valuation Information System (RPVIS) for tax collection, and enable platforms for national and regional stakeholders through consultative committees.  

Furthermore, Alvina underscored the prospects and plans to strengthen the reform on real property tax and valuation system in the country.  

“With the objective to strengthen the revenue generation and management of the real property tax and valuation system to improve local public service delivery and strengthen local governance, the following improvements are in the pipeline until FY2024: strengthen the institutional development and policy support for property taxation and valuation, implement property tax valuation database and information systems, enhance real property taxation of selected LGUs, further professionalize and build the capacities of LGUs and local assessors, and continue the reforms that will best serve the socio-economic agenda of the government”, Alvina emphasized.  

The Learning Week is a joint venture among the World Bank’s Urban, Resilience, and Land Global Practice, Korea Real Estate Board (REB) under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) of the Republic of Korea, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). Also present in the event are Ms. Marissa Benitez – Head of the Local Governance Reform Project (LGRP) Project Monitoring Unit (PMU), Ms Maricar M. Pimentel – Chief Intelligence Officer and Ms Evelyn Facun – Intelligence Officer III of the Department of Finance (DOF) Revenue Generation and Local Finance Group (RGLFG), where they represented the Philippines for the breakout sessions on Valuation Institutions and Governance and Linking Valuation to Taxation.  

Executive Director Alvina, who is a 2022-2023 Fulbright awardee of Humphrey Fellowship at the Maxwell School in Syracuse University and professional affiliate at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in the US, also chaired the technical session on valuation technology and innovations, and was the rapporteur on the breakout session on valuation for just compensation.