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There
is a reason why President Rodrigo Roa Duterte made it as one of his campaign promises
to eradicate if not lessen the chronic graft and corruption the country has
been into since this republic was born.
The
President made it sure the public knows that the top two government agencies
namely: Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
BIR is no different
Customs
has been feeling the brunt of the desire of the President to have it ranks
cleaned, since at the time of the start of his presidency the BOC it he has
already on his third appointment of its Commission head.
The
chief executive knows very well if he is to make this government work to its
fullest potential he needs a very efficient and corrupt free BOC and that goes
the same for the BIR.
Taxes
and duties have been the very lifeblood of every government, so it’s not a
surprise that his administration were able to entrap a BIR officer and
personnel for alleged extortion.
Operatives
of the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group
(CIDG) were able to arrest a Revenue District Officer (RDO) Bethshiba Bautista
and examiner Rachel Villanueva in an operation conducted in a BIR building in
Intramuros, Manila.
Only P500k for the government
The
PNP-CIDG reported that both Bautista and Villanueva had this well thought of a
plan to give P500,000 of the P2 million to the government and share the
remaining P1.5 million.
Bautista
and Villanueva denies the allegation they are extorting money to enrich
themselves. Both of them are currently under the custody of the PNP-CIDG and
they will face charges for Direct Bribery as provided by law.*
Duterte
appointee Greco Belgica, commissioner of the Presidential Anti-Corruption
Commission (PACC), said they have been conducting series of operations to weed
out corrupt officials in the BIR , but this was the first time PACC was able to
arrest a high official like that of Revenue District
Officer (RDO)
Back
in June of this year, three personnel of the Makati Revenue District office of
the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) who got involved in extortion scam were
also captured by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents working with
the PACC.
BIR
Regional Investigation Division (BIR-RID) Special Investigators Arturo D.
Buniol, Gary V. Atanacio and Edgardo Y. Javier were arrested last June 21.
The
officials were reportedly caught red handed in possession of a portion of the
PHP600, 000 marked money, which they extorted from a restaurant owner, whom the
BIR had supposedly assessed for a tax liability of PHP1.2 million.
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| June 2018 - Officials of the National Bureau of Investigation present to media three BIR personnel who were arrested for extortion. |
Source: Manila Times, UNTV
