EDITORIAL - No room for shoddiness

Don’t expect this to be a walk in the park. The government, under new management, has been going after officials suspected of corruption in a way that might actually work: through their tax payment deficiencies. But because the most accomplished crooks are those who have amassed the largest amounts illegally, they can be expected to hire the most expensive lawyers and accountants and put up a spirited fight, to defend their wealth if not their name.

Aware of this, revenue officials and prosecutors of the Department of Justice must make sure they have airtight cases against public officials past and present as well as moneyed and influential individuals who face charges for tax evasion. Going after the tax payments of the corrupt is a good option for the government in the absence of a law similar to the one in the United States against racketeering-influenced and corrupt organizations, and with the Office of the Ombudsman sitting on large-scale corruption cases.

When wrongdoing is established, the government can receive assistance from foreign friends. Yesterday the US government turned over to the Philippine Treasury, through the Department of Justice, $132,000 in forfeited bank deposits of retired military comptroller Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot and his wife in the United States. 

The turnover was made on the same day that the Bureau of Internal Revenue filed a P73.5-million tax evasion case against the eldest son of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, party-list Rep. Mikey Arroyo and his wife Angela, for real estate property and luxury vehicles they purchased in the US from 2002 to 2009. The congressman has denied cheating on his taxes. If the BIR botches this case, it will give the Arroyos ammunition to accuse the administration of political persecution. That possibility, apart from the need to collect the right taxes, should compel the BIR and the DOJ to build an airtight case. There’s no room here for shoddy work.