Lopez-led FPIP, 17 locators honored as top Tanauan City taxpayers; contributions hit P1B mark
Lopez-led economic zone First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP) and 17 of its locators have received recognitions from the local government unit (LGU) of Tanauan City in Batangas province for topping the list of the city’s biggest taxpayers last year.
Seven of these companies contributed to the coffers of the Tanauan City LGU more than P1 billion in business and real property taxes in 2024 --- enough to support roughly one-fourth of the LGU’s P4.3-billion budget in 2024.
“We are proud to be a partner of Tanauan, not just in terms of the substantial tax contribution but also because of the jobs that we create for the local community. When FPIP prospers, so does the city,” said FPIP vice president Ricky Carandang.
FPIP and nine locators also swept all the awards under the top 10 real property taxpayer (RPT) category, while eight of them made it to the list of Tanauan City’s 10 biggest sources of business tax.
“I would like to believe that the richest LGU in Batangas now is Tanauan City, because our partners from the business sector are paying their taxes,” said during city hall ceremonies on July 14 to honor the top taxpayers. Tanauan City organizes the annual awarding ceremonies to honor and show appreciation to the city’s biggest taxpayers.
Vice Mayor Wilfredo “Dodong” Ablao, for his part, disclosed during the same awarding ceremonies that the tax contributions helped the LGU to double its budget for education assistance and other city programs. Because of the increased tax payments, the number of schoolchildren receiving benefits under the education assistance program doubled from 27,000 to 54,000; and the number of beneficiaries per family, from two to four schoolchildren, Ablao said.
Honda Philippines, Inc., a motorcycle assembler inside FPIP, paid Tanauan City P275.15 million in business tax to become the biggest source of this type of payment to the LGU last year. Honda Philippines also paid another P49.34 million in real property tax (RPT), which was the fifth biggest amount of RPT paid by one taxpayer to Tanauan City last year.
Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation, a tobacco product maker inside FPIP, received recognition as Tanauan City’s biggest source of RPT (P176.48 million) and third-biggest source of business tax (P56.17 million) in 2024.
The combined P324.5 million in business and real property taxes of Honda Philippines also made the company the top source of both taxes in Tanauan City in 2024.
Five locators and FPIP itself joined Honda Philippines in completing the list of the seven biggest sources of these two taxes in Tanauan City.
Rounding up this list in descending order of their tax contributions were Philip Morris Fortune (P232.65 million), Nestle Philippines Inc. (P149.41 million), Philippine Manufacturing Co. Murata Inc. (P77.21 million), FPIP (P54.53 million), Brother Industries Philippines Inc. (P50.29 million), and Canon Business Machine Philippines Inc. (P40.87 million).
Lopez-controlled First Philippine Holdings Corporation, together with partner Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, established FPIP in Batangas as a world-class location for global manufacturers and traders, as well as a platform for creating jobs for ordinary Filipinos and tax revenues for the government. Today, the 600-hectare ecozone provides employment to nearly 80,000 Filipinos.
