Farmers march vs BIR on sugar co-ops' case

I rate agrarian reform members yesterday staged a major demonstration against BIR regional director Rodita Galanto after she refused to allow the Ma-ao Multipurpose Sugar Cooperative to withdraw and sell its refined sugar stocks from the Victorias Milling Company without first submitting their books to the agency.

The marchers, mostly ARBs, deplored publicly what they called as the nullification of the social thrust of the government in uplifting the plight of the poor by imposing stringent restrictions on cooperatives.

“A few years back, we saw our lives improved. Now, with the imposition of the E-VAT and the regulations imposed on sugar cooperatives by the regional director of BIR Revenue Region 12, all the gains achieved in the past had been erased,” said one of the commentators.

The demonstration was spearheaded by Fr. Armand Inion, chairman of the Ma-ao Parish Council Multipurpose Cooperative.

The cooperative is mostly made up of ARBs. Fr. Inion said, as quoted by a spokesman, that the cost of fertilizers has gone up as well as other production inputs and the BIR is removing the exemptions which the government and the law had vested on sugar cooperatives, thereby returning them to the “dark ages.”

Galanto refused on Wednesday to allow the withdrawal of some 10,198 Lkgs of refined sugar from the VMC. The quantity costs about P10 million.

Others who had also asked for withdrawal permits for their sugar were APP Negros Farmers MPC, Negros Sugar Farmers MPC, Negros del Norte Planters Association MPC, Sugarcane Growers MPC, and United South VMC MPC.

Galanto asked her staff to accept the requests.

“We cannot give them any payments if we cannot sell our sugar,” Onion said.

Galanto asked for the sugar co-ops’ list of buyers of their sugar from January to August this year before she could issue an ARRS for their refined sugar.

Onion, however, said the submission of the list of buyers is not mandatory and quoted procedural lapses on the part of the BIR in the past. “It is unconstitutional and tantamount to self-incrimination,” Onion said, adding that the buyers would no longer trust the co-op if they did it.

Galanto came up with the excuse that it was for the BIR to determine who these sugar traders are for monitoring and tax collection purposes.

There was an ugly side to the meeting Wednesday. Mediamen had to wait for hours for the security guards to allow them in; afterwards, they also had to sign the logbook three times before they were allowed to the interview with Galanto.

Onion pointed out that they have been ignoring the BIR summons because they are exempted from paying taxes as provided for in Section 109 of the Tax Reform Act of 1997 and Section 4, 109-1 of the E-VAT Law.

Meanwhile, Sen. Mar Roxas upped the level of pressure on the BIR when he filed Resolution No. 645 with the Senate asking for a probe on the BIR collection of the 12 percent E-VAT from sugar cooperatives. He insisted that was based on an erroneous interpretation of the law.

Earlier, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri reported that the passage of a bill in the Senate that amended the Cooperative Law and also included provisions against any government employee or agency that contravenes the tax exemption granted to cooperatives by law.

Roxas scored the BIR Revenue Regulation Nos. 29-2002, 2-2004, and 4-2004 which gave the agency the authority to collect VAT from sugar co-ops.

“There is nothing in our tax law which authorizes the BIR to collect advance payment of VAT on the sale of cooperatives, which is in direct conflict with BIR rules,” Roxas pointed out.

The point raised by the sugarmen is that with the high cost of fuel, fertilizers and other inputs, the imposition of taxes (E-VAT) nullifies the social objectives of the Cooperative Law.

Well, something’s gotta give soon. The law is the law and nothing and nobody is allowed to come up with anything that contravenes it, was how officials of cooperative put it.

Gunman’s widow seeks help

I learned only yesterday that the widow of Edgar Cordero, the suspected gunman in the death of Ajuy (Iloilo) Vice Mayor Ramon Rojas Jr., had asked for police protection following death threats against her and her children.

Cordero was gunned down in Butuan City two weeks ago. The alleged gunman, Lindsey Buenavista, also a suspect in Rojas’ murder, is still free.

Cordero’s widow said she had been receiving text messages warning her to be careful, so with her children.

The other suspected gunman, Dennis Cartagana, escaped the Cordero ambush and himself warned Cordero’s widow to be careful. He is now under tight security at the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center, his food only brought to him in his cell. Visitors are restricted and carefully monitored.

Cartagana, who pointed to Vicente Espinosa as the alleged mastermind of the Rojas murder and the plan to allegedly liquidate several other targets, is being considered as a possible state witness in the case against Espinosa.

Fifth district provincial board member Jett Rojas, named as one of the alleged targets of the plot, proposed that the statement of Cordero’s widow be used to bolster the case against Espinosa. This, after she told dyFM Radyo Bombo that her husband’s boss was Espinosa.

In short, there is no end to the killings unless the case against Espinosa and Buenavista is finished.

That’s the problem with alleged conspiracies. Unless stopped in their tracks, the members of the plot are themselves liquidated by their own companions, as in the case of Cordero. He was shot by his own co-accused in the Rojas murder.