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The First Division of the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan on Thursday convicted five former high-ranking officials of the Department of Finance (DOF) and one private citizen over a P5.3-billion tax credit scam in 1990s.
In an 83-page decision promulgated on June 30, the First Division found former Finance executive director Uldarico Andutan Jr. and former Finance Garment Division officer-in-charge Miriam Tasarra “guilty beyond reasonable doubt” of seven counts of violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
This section prohibits a public official from giving unwarranted benefit, advantage or undue preference to any party or causing any party, including the government, undue injury.
They were sentenced to minimum of six years to a maximum of ten years of imprisonment for each count of the offense or a maximum total of 70 years.
Meanwhile, former DOF tax credit evaluators Gladys Olaño, Irene Magbojos and Lucila Cueto were found guilty of two counts each of the same offense were sentenced to minimum of 12 years to a maximum of 20 years of imprisonment.
Private respondent Kuldip Singh, president of J.K. Apparel Manufacturing Inc. and United Apparel Manufacturing Inc., was found guilty of six counts of the same offense and was sentenced to minimum of 30 years to a maximum of 60 years of imprisonment.
The six respondents were ordered to jointly pay the government a total of P9.690 million, equivalent to the amount of public fund found by the court to have been misused.
Alleged consipiracy
Based on information on the cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2000, the public respondents allegedly conspired in awarding to Singh’s two garment companies tax credit certificates (TCCs) totaling P9,690,639 “without legal basis”.
The Ombudsman said five TCCs totaling P5.231 million was awarded to J.K. Apparel from April to July 1997, while two TCCs totaling P4.459 million was awarded to United Apparel in October 1997 and March 1998.
The Ombudsman said most the supporting documents submitted by the two companies to support their application for TCCs were fake while some were mere photocopies of documents submitted in previous applications.
“After a solicituous consideration of the evidence presented, the Court finds and thus holds, that the prosecution has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the tax credit certificates lack valid basis,” the First Division said in its ruling penned by its chairman Associate Justice Efren Dela Cruz.
Associate Justices Rodolfo Ponferrada and Rafael Lagos concurred in the ruling.
In convicting the respondents, the court gave weight to the testimonies of some DOF employees confirming that no verification was made on the authenticity of the documents submitted by J.K. Apparel and United Apparel because of the “intentional” deactivation of the Monitoring and Verification Division of the DOF’s One-Stop Shop (OSS) Center.
The court said Singh during his cross-examination by the prosecution, even admitted that he was not certain of the authenticity of some documents that his companies submitted to DOF.
The court also noted of Singh’s admission that some of the documents were just photocopies.
“In total disregard of their functions, duties and responsibilities, accused Olaño, Magbojos and Cuete (tax credit evaluators) closed their eyes and intentionally passed upon the validity of the documents supporting the subject applications for tax credit despite being mere photocopies,” the decision read.
“Again, the defect is noticeable even without having to pay a closer look on the documents,” it added.
Acquitted
Meanwhile, the court acquitted two other respondents in the cases, namely former DOF Garment Division reviewer Cesar Estolan Jr. and former DOF One-Stop Shop (OSS) tax specialist Mark Binsol due to insufficiency of evidence.
On the other hand, the court proceedings for the cases of the primary accused, former Finance undersecretary Antonio Belicena, were ordered indefinitely suspended.
The court on March 11, 2014 ordered the suspension of the court hearings after Belicena's camp had proven that he was suffering from dementia and was not competent to stand trial.
The One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit project was spearheaded by the DOF during the administration of former President Fidel Ramos.
Under the project, TCCs were issued to companies that manufacture local products for export as a form of tax refunds by the government.
However, in a Senate investigation in late 1998, it was discovered that a total of P5.3 billion worth of TCCs were issued to several companies, including PGI, from 1995 to early 1998 despite spurious documents.
More than a hundred criminal cases were filed against Belicena, Andutan, former DOF officials and several other private individuals in connection with the tax credit scam.
The cases were pending in four other divisions of the Sandiganbayan. — VVP, GMA News
- See more at: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/571931/news/nation/sandiganbayan-convicts-former-finance-execs-over-p5-3-billion-tax-credit-scam#sthash.DpYtApvJ.dpuf
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