Finance employees to face graft charges

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MANILA — A group of employees of the Department of Finance (DOF) will be facing multiple graft charges over some tax credit scam activities discovered recently.

Eighteen officials, many of whom were previously charged for tax credit fraud, are set to face as many as 45 counts of graft.

The said employees and officials belong to the Finance department’s One-Stop Shop Interagency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center (OSS-Center) led by former undersecretary Antonio Belicena.

Investigators discovered that the employees issued 45 tax credit certificates (TCCs) worth P112.6 million from 1995 to 1998 to a bogus export company named Mannequin International Corp.

(MIC).

TCCs are issued to a company as a form of tax refund incentive and may be used to pay  taxes, duties, charges and fees due to the government.

“The company was for all intents and purposes a paper corporation created solely for the purpose of filing spurious tax credit claims with the government,” the Ombudsman said.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said the anti-graft body will file 45 counts of graft against Belicena and Andutan and 43 counts against Magdaet.

Graft charges will also be filed against MIC officers and representatives.

Meanwhile, other Finance employees who will be charged with up to six counts of graft are Rowena Maño, Gemma Abara, Annabelle Dino, Emelita Tizon, Purita Napeñas, Charmelle Recoter, Merose Tordesilla, Gregoria Evangelio, Mark Binsol, Cherry Gomez, Sylvialina Daguimol, Manuel Rigor III, Maria Christina Moncada, Paul Senador and Marife Cabadin.