2 BIR employees dismissed for extortion

Two employees of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) were dismissed from service by the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday for extortion and for failure to remit tax payments.

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez ordered the dismissal of Jimmy Napoles, an examiner of the BIR South office in Cebu City, and Francisca Poligrates, an employee of BIR District Office 92 in Pagadian City.

In an eight-page decision, Gutierrez upheld an earlier decision by Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Primo Miro and denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Napoles.

Miro found Napoles guilty of grave misconduct and imposed the penalty of dismissal from service along with accompanying penalties.

Records showed that Napoles was tasked to assess the correct zonal valuation of a 525-square-meter property owned by a certain Antonio Ruiz Jr. in Sitio Antuanga, Quiot, Pardo, Cebu City to determine the amount of capital gains tax due the government for the sale of his property to the National Broadcasting Corp.

In his complaint, Ruiz said Napoles agreed to lower the amount of the tax payment on condition that he would be paid P10,000 to speed up the processing of the documents and assure its approval by the BIR Regional Office.

Ruiz sought the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) instead and an entrapment operation was conducted. Napoles was arrested by NBI agents after receiving an envelope containing marked money from Ruiz.

Poligrates, meanwhile, received from one Judith Saile in separate instances a total amount of P50,000 intended as payment for the estate and capital gains taxes of her parents’ properties.

The Office of the Ombudsman said Poligrates also received from Ines Lubrico and Carolina Mallorca a total amount of P60,000 intended as payment for the capital gains tax of the property of Lubrico’s niece.

Poligrates reportedly volunteered to facilitate the tax payments but failed to remit the payments to the BIR.

In a 14-page joint-decision, Gutierrez ordered Poligrates’ dismissal from service for dishonesty, grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service. — Mike Frialde