Bohol councilor raps 3 BIR execs for extort

CEBU — The police have charged three ranking Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) officials for the alleged extortion of a Bohol municipal councilor.

Two of the three officials were arrested last Tuesday in an entrapment operation conducted by the city police in a restaurant.

Charged were BIR Special Investigation Division chief Francis Ybañez, Intelligence Operation Section chief Francis Mercado and revenue officer Edgar Palgan for allegedly demanding P30,000 from Panglao, Bohol councilor Leonila Montero.

But Mercado is now at large because he was reportedly in Manila during the entrapment operation conducted by elements of the criminal investigation and intelligence branch and the vice control section (VCS) of the city police.

In her affidavit, Montero said the BIR officials allegedly began extorting from her sometime last March when they frequented the Alona Tropical Beach Resort, which her family had sold.

On May 9, she claimed that Palgan called her up to say that he wanted to talk to her personally regarding the result of their surveillance assessment of the resort’s sale.

Thus, on May 16, she went to the BIR regional office where she met Mercado and Ybañez for the first time.

After the meeting, Montero said Palgan sent her a text message telling her they wanted to talk to her about the assessment.

There were several invitations made by Palgan, but she rejected them because they did not present documents regarding their findings, she said.

But Palgan allegedly set another meeting on May 24 at a coffee shop in Ayala where they presented her the findings that covered the first quarter of the year.

Montero claimed that she later received a fax message of the assessment that amounted to P200,970, but she just ignored it.

On July 20, Palgan and Mercado met with her in a shopping mall in Tagbilaran City where she was allegedly told that instead of paying to the government, she should give them money to sustain their surveillance operations.

In the morning of July 26, they met together with Palgan and Ybañez at a coffee shop in a shopping mall where they agreed that she would pay them P60,000.

Last Tuesday, Montero filed her complaint with prosecutor Victor Laborte. Attached to her complaint was the joint affidavit of arrest signed by VCS chief George Ylanan, SPO1 Filomeno Mendaros, PO3 Fe Altubar, PO2 Edward Abatayo, PO2 Jay Pizzaras, and PO1 Frederick Ybañez.

But Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Primo Miro, who was the only one authorized to approve the information, was out of town.

Ybañez and Palgan were sent back to the Guadalupe police station with the unapproved complaint.

SPO1 Filomeno Mendaros said they would have the complaint approved yesterday so the suspects’ preliminary investigation could start. — Ryan Borinaga and Liv Campo/ Freeman News Service