Ombudsman suspends 3 BIR execs for extortion

The Ombudsman-Visayas has suspended three high ranking officers of the Bureau of Internal Revenue who were arrested last Tuesday for allegedly extorting money from a municipal councilor in Bohol.

Lawyers Francis Villa Mercado, chief of the BIR Regional Intelligence Operations Section; Bonifacio Ybañez, head of the bureau's Regional Special Investigation Section and revenue officer Edgar Palgan were suspended for six months without pay effective immediately.

Deputy Ombudsman Primo Miro ordered the suspension of the three BIR officials while the investigation into their case is going on. The Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch of the Cebu City Police Office received the order of the suspension yesterday afternoon.

Mercado, Ybañez and Palgan were arrested in an entrapment operation at a restaurant after Panglao, Bohol, councilor Nila Montero, a resort owner, sought the help of the police last week.

Montero claimed that the three revenue officers demanded money from her in exchange for the settlement of her tax obligations pegged at P200,970.61 for the first quarter of the year.

The amount was supposedly the tax for the sale of Alona Tropical in barangay Tawala, Panglao, owned by Montero.

Montero said the suspects befriended her and her husband sometime last year and that her husband gave P12,000 to Mercado when they visited Bohol this year.

During the entrapment operation, only Ybañez and Palgan were arrested because Mercado was not around.

It was Ybañez who accepted the envelope that contained the P30,000 in bribe money and passed it on to Palgan. - Jasmin R. Uy and Wenna A. Berondo