BIR revenue officer in Leyte dismissed

The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed a revenue officer of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Palo, Leyte yesterday after he failed to immediately remit his collections from three towns in the provinces of Leyte and Biliran.

However, Revenue Officer I Alberto G. Modesto Jr. was able to remit in installments the P112,000.56 he had collected from the town of Cabucgayan in Biliran and Sta. Fe and San Miguel in Leyte.

Records at the Office of the Ombudsman showed Modesto collected the P112,000.56 from April 2000 to October 2001 and remitted the amount in installments between January and March 2002.

In his affidavit, Modesto justified the delay in his remittance on grounds that Cabucgayan, Biliran, is more than a hundred kilometers away from the BIR District Office where he would remit his collections.

His travel expenses and per diem were scarcely available, he added.

Modesto also said his house was also razed by fire on Dec. 31, 2001 and that all his official documents were destroyed.

As a result, he was only able to establish his balance and remitted it after reconstructing the records, he added.

But in a five-page decision, the Office of the Ombudsman said: "Restitution of the missing funds after the fact cannot exonerate him of the charge, and it may instead tighten a finding of his guilt."

Modesto’s other contentions are "personal in nature," and that they cannot be considered valid defenses, the anti-graft agency added.

The Office of the Ombudsman found Modesto guilty of dishonesty and ordered him dismissed from the service, with all its accessory penalties.

Modesto will also be charged with malversation of public funds by the agency. — Mike Frialde