Trader in P5.3-B tax scam arrested

The principal suspect in the P5.3-billion Department of Finance (DOF) tax credit certificate scam was arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Quezon City yesterday.

Agents of the NBI’s Anti-Graft Division arrested Faustino Chingkoe, chairman of the board of directors of the Chingkoe Group of Companies, who is accused of defrauding the government of P2.54 billion by using fraudulent documents to claim tax credits.

He is facing 83 counts of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act: 42 for the issuance of tax credit certificates (TCCs) and 41 for transferring certificates to Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell.

The scam, which was exposed by Rep. Oscar Moreno (Lakas, Misamis Oriental) last January, also involved top officials of the DOF and its One Stop Shop Inter Agency Tax Center.

Chingkoe’s co-accused — Antonio Belicena, former undersecretary of the Department of Finance; Uldarico Andutan, former deputy executive director of the DOF’s One Stop Shop Inter Agency Tax Center; Winston and Gloria Chingkoe, Faustino’s brother and wife, respectively; Catalina Bautista, Amante Ares and Reynato Andaya also of the DOF’s inter agency tax center — have either posted bail or remain at large.

Accompanied by his lawyers, Chingkoe posted a P2.5-million bail bond, or P30,000 for each of the 83 counts of graft he is facing, yesterday afternoon at the fourth division of the Sandiganbayan.

As this developed, Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Lakas, Surigao del Norte) urged Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo to immediately file plunder charges against Chingkoe.

Barbers noted that if the suspect is charged with plunder, he won’t be able to flee since plunder is a non-bailable offense.

Sources at the NBI disclosed that Chingkoe and his co-accused were originally charged with plunder. However, the case was downgraded by then Ombudsman Aniano Desierto. — With Jess Diaz