Totol: “Bebot did not pay correct taxes”

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City congressional aspirant Aristotle “Totol” Batuhan has fired his second legal shot against his opponent, Rodrigo “Bebot” Abellanosa.

After his case against Abellanosa for conflict of interest over the city’s scholarship program, Batuhan recently wrote a letter to the law division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Central Office accusing Abellanosa of tax evasion.

Abellanosa, for his part, said this is yet another move by his opponent who is on the verge of losing.

“What else is new? What else does Totol (Batuhan) have in his bag of tricks? Naratol na gyud si Totol. I am already winning,” Abellanosa said.

BOPK congressional aspirant Abellanosa added his opponent would never surpass his “huge” 40-45 percent (about 120,000 votes) lead “even in his massive media propaganda.”

“The only way he can beat me is to make me disappear. My battery of lawyers will handle every case he will throw at me while I continue to champion the cause of the poor people who are now so angry at his malicious persecution of me,” Abellanosa added.

In his letter dated April 19, 2013, Totol cited that Abellanosa is “primary owner” of Asian College of Technology International Education Foundation Inc. (ACT Foundation) and Asian College of Technology Inc. (ACT).

Batuhan accused the ACT and the foundation of “non-declaration of income from rentals,” and that the “income and assets of the foundation” were diverted by Abellanosa to “fund his campaign.”

Batuhan cited that the ACT owns land in Leon Kilat St. but the building on it is declared in the name of the foundation, however, the lease of the land by ACT to the foundation was not declared in their Securities and Exchange Documents. Several entities are also leasing sections of the building, like a fastfood chain and a bank, and these were not also declared in their papers.

“At the outset, it must be pointed out that ACT Foundation’s organization as a non-stock, non-profit organization is suspect because its funds are being used for purposes other than for which it was organized. It is notoriously known in the locality that ACT and ACT Foundation promote the candidacy of Mr. Abellanosa,” Batuhan stated in his letter.

He cited that the foundation’s representation expense was only P286,304 in 2010 but ballooned to almost a million in 2011, and the advertising and promotion expense of ACT was zero in 2010 and rose to over a million in 2011.

“If ACT Foundation is indeed a non-stock, non-profit corporation, Abellanosa should not have benefitted from its funds… Hence, the foundation’s (status) may only be a subterfuge designed to avail of tax incentives,” Batuhan added.

He also accused the foundation of “under-declaring” its taxable income for 2011. “Needless to say, ACT Foundation’s omission to declare its rental income and underdeclaration of its income from tuition fees are badges of fraud that warrant investigation. The same constitutes tax evasion,” said Batuhan in his complaint.

Moreover, Batuhan hits Abellanosa for not declaring his source of funds for his “so-called counterpart scholarship fund” and for not paying taxes for these.

He said in tarpaulins and advertisements, Abellanosa “trumpets” he has given P10,000 counterpart for each scholar “out of his own pocket.”

“If so, where does the councilor source this counterpart fund? Going by his own declarations, that would have been P93 million three hundred twenty thousand in 2010 and P67 million in 2011… It behooves the city councilor to demonstrate and disclose the source of his extraordinary wealth and to pay the commensurate taxes thereon,” Batuhan stated. —/JPM (FREEMAN)