Las Piñas exec, 8 others face plunder charge

Acting Ombudsman Margarito Gervacio approved yesterday the filing of criminal charges against the Las Piñas register of deeds and eight others in connection with an alleged P95.8 million tax scam.

Gervacio said those to be charged with plunder are Corazon Chavez, chief of Las Piñas’ register of deeds; Delia de la Peña, Land Registration Authority (LRA) examiner; Maribel Barba, regional office director (RDO) of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)-Las Piñas; Nimfa Mina, revenue officer; Beatriz Meneses, group supervisor; Ma. Nimfa de Villa, acting revenue district officer (RDO), all assigned at BIR-RDO in Las Piñas; Adelaida Dolores Villa, seller and spouses Neil and Erma Digman, buyers.

Investigation conducted by the Fact Finding and Investigation Bureau (FFIB), headed by FFIB director Gerardo Lantoria, discovered that Chavez and her co-accused connived in defrauding the government a total of P95,850,000 representing non-payment of capital gains tax and documentary stamps involving the sale of a 50,000 square meter lot located along Alabang-Zapote Road in Las Piñas.

Lantoria said the deed of absolute sale was executed on June 28, 2001 by Villa, transferring the ownership of the lot of the Digmans for the sum of P8.5 million.

He said that during the actual investigation at the Las Piñas regional office district vault, they discovered another deed of absolute sale dated June 7, 2001 involving the sale of the same lot owned by the Digman couple. The deed indicated an amount of P30 million, a difference of P21.5 million compared with the P8.5 million indicated in the June 28, 2001 deed of absolute sale.

"Vault keepers Simeon Santos and Claro Vector were pale-faced when confronted by the agents. The two refused to certify the document as a true copy since it was not yet entered in the primary entry book," Lantoria said.