BIR executive suspended for unexplained wealth

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman yesterday ordered the suspension of an official of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for allegedly amassing unexplained wealth, which she tried to hide by wrongful declaration of the value of her properties.

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez placed Revenue District Officer III Arlene Grajeda under a six-month preventive suspension while graft investigators dig deeper into a complaint filed against her by the Revenue Integrity Protection Service of the Department of Finance.

The charges reveal that Grajeda’s Statements of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) for the years 1998, 1999 and 2004 were valued at only P4,551,200 but the properties were actually worth P10,684,220.

Grajeda and her husband’s assets include properties in Infanta and General Nakar in Quezon province, which were undervalued in an alleged effort to conceal her real net worth.

Records showed that since 2001, Grajeda has been receiving an annual salary of only P161,124 that is not enough to explain her assets, including a business in Quezon and a house in Quezon City.

The Office of the Ombudsman said Grajeda could not have acquired several landholdings and a poultry business with her salary alone, considering that she is even paying off a loan.

Investigators would continue the probe on Grajeda for possible violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

“With the modest salary of the respondent as Revenue District Officer in comparison with her substantial property ownership, it is without a doubt that her acquired and declared properties are manifestly out of proportion with her lawful income,” Gutierrez said.

“These indications of wealth do not even include family expenditures and tuition fees of respondent’s children, which, judging by the latter’s standard of living, could not be less than substantial.”