Special Presidential Task Force 156 files 1,023 cases in tax credit scam

Finance Undersecretary Inocencio Ferrer, Jr. said yesterday the Special President Task Force 156 (SPTF 156) has filed in the Office of the Ombudsman 1,023 criminal cases against individuals and corporations who were unduly given tax credits by past and incumbent high-ranking officials of the Department of Finance (DOF).

In a statement, Ferrer said 932 of the cases were filed under his alternate chairmanship which is the highest number of criminal cases filed during President Arroyo’s administration.

The task force is aggressively monitoring the criminal cases as well as the collection cases filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC) before the Court of Appeals and the Regional Trial Courts respectively.

Ferrer bewailed that SPTF members have been presented to the media as dirty government officials who are extorting money from witnesses.

"For instance, the accusation of Felix Chingkoe against me is absolutely false and without basis. The power to grant immunity from suit is not within the mandate of the task force which in this case solely resides with the Office of the Ombudsman," Ferrer said.

As early as June 2003, Ferrer had recommended to the Ombudsman the granting of immunity to Felix and Rosita Chingkoe without demanding and receiving any money or gift. In July 2003, Ombudsman Simeon V. Marcelo had inhibited himself in the tax credit scam cases.

The task force has discovered three very serious tax credit anomalies committed at the OSS-Center amounting to P84 million. These are separate from the original scam exposed by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile in 1999.

OSS-Center executive director Ernesto Q. Hiansen, a task force member, is one of the principal suspects in the ROHM and UNIDEN cases discovered by the NBI. As part of the task force, he is required to report any new irregularities that he might discover. Hiansen Enrile’s resource person when he first exposed the tax credit scam.