Alvarez faces another congressional inquiry

MANILA, Philippines - Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez is facing another congressional inquiry for allegedly protecting a major oil firm from paying the government P1.6 billion in taxes.

Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay filed House Resolution No. 1643 directing the House ways and means committee to conduct an inquiry into the failure of Alvarez to exact some P1,578,269,755 in excise and value-added tax (VAT) on Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation from July last year to the present.

She said instead of acting on the recommendation of his subordinates to file legal action against Shell for “unabated smuggling activities,” Alvarez had them removed.

However, several colleagues of Magsaysay at the House of Representatives took up the cudgels for the embattled official, saying he should be given another chance.

Magsaysay said a team of six senior officials of the Port of Batangas conducted an investigation into the issue and recommended, through District Collector Juan Tan, the filing of court action against Shell last June.

But Tan and his other officials who made the recommendation found themselves relieved of their duties shortly after informing Alvarez of their findings.

“Why relieve them for helping the Aquino administration in its “daang matuwid (straight path)” mission? What is the Department of Finance doing now to collect the unpaid taxes,” she asked.

She said Alvarez is not doing his job and is just feigning ignorance about the incidents when he should have been the first to protect government against the anomalies.

Magsaysay said Shell was previously found to have allegedly evaded payment of at least P7.3 billion in taxes for shipments of Catalyctic Cracked Gasoline (CCCG) and Light Catalyctic Cracked Gasoline (LCCG) from 2004 to 2008.

She said the Port of Batangas officials also discovered that the CCCG and LCCG were misdeclared as blending components, which are tax-exempt.

She added that Shell has also been misdeclaring alkylate as additive, although it was discovered later that the compound has been classified as motor gasoline, thus subject to excise taxes and VAT on excise taxes.

“There are strong indications that certain government officials may have given undue advantage to smugglers. It is therefore imperative for the House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry into these issues that involves transcendental importance,” Magsaysay said.

Not so fast

But some of Magsaysay’s colleagues, among them Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor Ejercito, and Batangas Rep. Tomas Apacible, want Alvarez to be given another chance.

They argued that being the head of the second biggest revenue earner of the government, he faces a Herculean task of reaching the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC’s) monthly collection targets.

Alvarez earlier said calls for his removal was uncalled for since he was the one who exposed the missing 2,000-container vans transshipment scam.

He explained that some people had lost sight that he was the one who uncovered the missing container scam and ordered the concerned officials of the bureau to explain the discrepancy in the transshipment data long before the start of the congressional inquiry on this matter.

“With due respect, I do not share that view (the ouster of Commissioner Alvarez). It is good that we now hear about such smuggling activities, although belated. It was Commissioner Alvarez who brought this matter out instead of sweeping it under the rug. We should give him credit for such. He has ordered a thorough investigation, a copy of the initial results of which has been furnished our committee,” Rep. Fariñas said in a statement.

Ejercito and Umali said Alvarez should be given the benefit of the doubt, as both maintained that the BOC should be cleansed and that the system should be reviewed in the light of the recent reports of missing container vans.

Apacible, himself a former Customs commissioner, said that the investigation should be allowed to prosper before demanding the ouster of Alvarez.

Fariñas, a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, recommended the filing of criminal charges against 16 BOC officials allegedly involved in a grand conspiracy to defraud the government of about P3.6 billion following reports that 1,910 vans containing high-duty goods went missing since last January. – With Evelyn Macairan