Police charge 3 BIR officials for extortion

Police yesterday charged three high ranking Bureau of Internal Revenue Officials for alleged extortion against a municipal councilor in Bohol.

Two of the agency's officials were arrested Tuesday in an entrapment operation conducted by the Cebu City Police Office at a restaurant.

Charged were BIR Special Investigation Division chief Francis Ybañez, Intelligence Operation Section chief Francis Mercado and Revenue Officer Edgar Palgan for allegedly demanding P30,000 from Panglao, Bohol councilor Leonila Montero.

But Mercado is now at large because he was reportedly in Manila during the operation launched by the elements of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch, and the Vice Control Section.

In her affidavit, Montero revealed that the BIR officials' extortion activity started sometime in March when they frequented the Alona Tropical Beach Resort, which her family had sold.

On May 9, the lady councilor claimed that Palgan called her to say he wanted to talk to her personally regarding the result of their surveillance assessment of the sale of the resort.

Thus on May 16, she went to the BIR regional office where she met Mercado and Ybanez for the first time.

She said that after the meeting, Palgan sent her a text message telling her they wanted to talk to her about the assessment. There were several invitations made by Palgan, she said, but she rejected them because they did not present documents regarding their findings.

But Palgan allegedly set another meeting on May 24 at a coffee shop in Ayala where they presented her the findings that covered the first quarter of the year. Montero claimed that she later received a fax message of the assessment that amounted to P200,970, but she just ignored it.

On July 20, Palgan and Mercado met with her at a shopping mall in Tagbilaran City where she was told that instead of paying to the government, she should give them money to sustain their surveillance operations.

In the morning of July 26, they met together with Palgan and Ybañez at a coffee shop in a shopping mall where they had agreed that she would pay them P60,000.

Yesterday, Montero filed her complaint by signing the Information before Prosecutor Victor Laborte of the Officer of City Prosecutor. Attached to her complaint was the joint affidavit of arrest signed by VCS chief George Ylanan, SPO1 Filomeno Mendaros, PO3 Fe Altubar, PO2 Edward Abatayo, PO2 Jay Pizzaras, and PO1 Frederick Ybañez.

But Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Primo Miro, who was the only one authorized to approve the Information, was out of town yesterday.

The two arrested BIR officials were sent back to Guadalupe Police Station even with the unapproved Information.

SPO1 Filomeno Mendaros said they would have the Information approved today so the suspects' preliminary investigation will start. -Ryan P. Borinaga and Liv G. Campo