De Lima, Henares charged with plunder before Ombudsman

MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and five officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) were charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday for allegedly failing to give a tax fraud informant his reward.

Danilo Lihaylihay of Batasan Hills, Quezon City filed the complaint, claiming that he was supposed to receive P1.130 billion for being the informant in the tax evasion cases of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) worth P3.6 billion and the Bank of America worth P217 million.

Lihaylihay said De Lima and BIR chief Kim Jacinto-Henares, Assistant Commissioner Marissa Cabreros, Law Division chief VC Cadangen and Law Division action lawyer Joan Quijano connived to deprive him of what he was supposed to receive under the law.

He said the respondents maliciously refused to pay him by claiming in a published legal opinion that the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, which limits the reward at P1 million or 10 percent of taxes recovered, prevails over Republic Act 2338, the law that Provides for Reward to Informers of Violations of the Internal Revenue and Customs Laws at the rate of 25 percent.

Claiming that plunder has been committed, he said the respondents illegally confederated with one another in amassing, accumulating, or acquiring ill-gotten wealth through conversion, misappropriation, or malversation of public trust funds by issuing DOJ Opinion No. 48.

Lihaylihay said De Lima and the BIR officials took undue advantage of their official positions, authority, connections or influence to unjustly enrich themselves and or the state at his expense.