Anti-terror task force exec to be probed

An undersecretary of the Department of National Defense (DND) now faces investigation following reports that one of the 11 textile firms owned by Faustino Chingkoe, the prime suspect in a multibillion-peso tax scam, is registered under his name, that of his driver and an oil company executive who is also a respondent in the tax credit scam.

Records showed that Defense Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor and driver Tomasito Lim are the incorporators of Marikina Textile Mills Inc., formerly Chingkoe’s Allstar Spinning Inc., while Mario Roxas of Petron’s Metro Manila district sales office serves as its president.

Allstar, which was supposed to be confiscated for defrauding the government of some P285 million in revenues through the use of spurious tax credit certificates (TCCs), was the subject of a complaint filed by Presidential Task Force 156 at the Ombudsman in June 2003.

Blancaflor, now a spokesman for the anti-terror task force, had represented Chingkoe in some of the cases the government filed against him.

Sources fear that the government can no longer go after Allstar because the company has been "laundered."

Sources said the main suspect made it appear that Allstar no longer existed by showing documents that Planters Development Bank had foreclosed on the property in Sept. 1993 and that it was eventually sold to Marikina Textile Mills in June 2001.

A deed of conditional sale dated June 2001 between Planters Bank and Marikina Textile Mills showed Roxas as the signatory representing the firm located at the same sprawling one-hectare Allstar Spinning Inc. facility in Parang, Marikina City.

Chingkoe and his wife Gloria are facing graft charges before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the tax scam. Prosecutors accuse them of conniving with finance officials to acquire TCCs though they were not entitled to the tax refunds, causing undue injury to the government.

Ironically, the case involving Allstar is still pending at the Office of the Ombudsman since the case was filed by lawyer Alan Ventura of the Special Presidential Task Force 156 in June 2003.

Faustino was allowed to leave for the US, Canada and Hong Kong for a month and has since returned.

Prosecutors, led by Dennis Villa Ignacio, opposed his travel request because he held four different passports but the anti-graft court allowed him to travel nonetheless.