Ex-DOF exec, 3 others charged for tax scam

A former undersecretary of the Department of Finance, three other DOF officials and two other people were charged with graft and falsification of public documents before the Sandiganbayan yesterday in relation to a multimillion-peso tax credit scam.

The Office of the Ombudsman found enough evidence to indict former DOF Undersecretary Antonio Belicena, former deputy executive director Uldarico Andutan Jr., tax specialists Raul de Vera and Rosanna Diala and Columbus Philippine Bus Corp. employees Amelia de Dios and Joseph Cabotaje.

Government prosecutors said the DOF officials, who were all members of the One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Drawback Center, "conspired" with De Vera and Diala to grant the bus firm a P5-million tax credit certificate even if the firm was "not qualified or legally entitled to avail (itself) of tax credit."

The tax credit certificate (TCC) was issued on the basis of the bus company’s purchase in June 1997 of six Mitsubishi non-air-conditioned Fuso units at a reported cost of P28 million. The certificate had been issued even if the documents presented for the TCC application were found to be "spurious and falsified" and that the purchase prices for the buses were "overstated."

Investigation showed that Columbus was not entitled to any TCC, since its units were bought "from a dealer and not from a domestic manufacturer" as is required under the Investment Code of 1987. Probers said the DOF officials approved the application despite "glaring and obvious discrepancies."

Bail for each of the accused was set at P70,000 — P30,000 for the graft suit and P40,000 for the falsification of public documents suit.

Prosecutors said the DOF officials "knowingly granted a privilege or advantage to a non-qualified applicant for tax credit."

The Ombudsman said all the accused were criminally liable for overstating the prices of the bus units at P28 million, or P4.6 million per unit, when they knew that the total amount was just P23.8 million, or only P3.9 million per unit.

In August, Belicena, Andutan, review officer Asuncion Magdaet, evaluator Melrose Tordesillas and Lorna Gamboa, secretary and manager of garment firm Texasia Inc., were indicted after prosecutors said they connived to defraud the government of P2.1 million. The accused in the Texasia case conspired to issue a TCC based on spurious documents, prosecutors said.

Graft prober Marydel Jarlos-Martin made the recommendation, which was approved by chief special prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio on the basis that the DOF officials had "unity of purpose" in granting a P2.1 million TCC to Texasia without the benefit of thorough scrutiny.

Martin said the only basis for the TCC approval was Gamboa’s certification that all the submitted requisites were authentic — the same reason cited by Magdaet and Tordesillas, who said the TCC application appeared complete and complied with all the requirements.

However, an investigation conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) showed that the supporting papers were either forged, non-existent or were receipts issued to other companies falsified to look like Texasia was the applicant. – Delon Porcalla