Eight former DOF officials face TCC charges

Eight former Department of Finance officials and three officers of a steel company were charged before the Sandiganbayan yesterday for the issuance of P59.7 million worth of fake tax credit certificates.

The case arose from the issuance of the fake certificates to Universal Steel Melting Co. (USSCI) through the finance department's One-Stop Shop Interagency Credit and Drawback Center between February and November 1997.

Charged with graft and corruption and multiple counts of estafa through falsification of public documents are: former finance undersecretary Antonio Belicena, former acting executive director Raul de Vera, former deputy executive director Uldarico Andutan Jr., supervising tax specialist Cesar Estolana Jr., senior tax specialists Emerito Asban and Carlo Baloloy, tax specialists Cherry and Alvin Gomez, USSCI treasurer and board member Paulino Lim, and operations managers Ramon Manuel and Epifania Arawan.

Ombudsman Aniano Desierto said the tax credit certificates (TCCs) were later found to have been supported by false documents.

"In the processing of the application for the TCCs, the DOF center officers involved failed to verify or confirm the authenticity and validity of the documents supporting the applications, and merely relied on photocopies and incomplete documents presented by USSCI," he said.

Earlier, the Ombudsman charged before the Sandiganbayan officials of JK Apparel and United Inc., and oil firms Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Petron Inc.

JK Apparel allegedly obtained P9.7 million worth of fake tax credit certificates, while Shell and Petron each received P1 billion of the certificates.

Investigations showed the invoices, which USSCI had submitted to the finance department, were not registered for purposes of value-added tax and that they did not show the company's Tax Identification Number and an authority to print from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The Bank Credit Memoranda supposedly issued by the Consolidated Bank and Trust Corp. was also proven to be fake after Solid Bank (formerly Consolidated Bank and Trust Corp.) said that the bank stopped using forms carrying the heading "Consolidated Bank and Trust Corporation" since 1993.

In their defense, Belicena and his co-accused said their participation in the issuance of the fake tax credit certificates was "merely ministerial" because they did not actually take part in the evaluation, review, and approval of USSCI's application.

In papers filed in court, Desierto said the 11 accused conspired with one another in causing the issuance of the 17 fake tax credit certificates to USSCI.

Once convicted, the 11 will each be imprisoned for 12 years.--