BIR officer, personnel arrested for extorting P2M - The Daily Sentry


BIR officer, personnel arrested for extorting P2M



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There is a reason why President Rodrigo Roa Duterte made it as one of his campaign promises to eradicate if not lessen the chronic graft and corruption the country has been into since this republic was born.

The President made it sure the public knows that the top two government agencies namely: Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).


BIR is no different

Customs has been feeling the brunt of the desire of the President to have it ranks cleaned, since at the time of the start of his presidency the BOC it he has already on his third appointment of its Commission head.

The chief executive knows very well if he is to make this government work to its fullest potential he needs a very efficient and corrupt free BOC and that goes the same for the BIR.

Taxes and duties have been the very lifeblood of every government, so it’s not a surprise that his administration were able to entrap a BIR officer and personnel for alleged extortion.

Operatives of the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) were able to arrest a Revenue District Officer (RDO) Bethshiba Bautista and examiner Rachel Villanueva in an operation conducted in a BIR building in Intramuros, Manila.

Only P500k for the government

The PNP-CIDG reported that both Bautista and Villanueva had this well thought of a plan to give P500,000 of the P2 million to the government and share the remaining P1.5 million.

Bautista and Villanueva denies the allegation they are extorting money to enrich themselves. Both of them are currently under the custody of the PNP-CIDG and they will face charges for Direct Bribery as provided by law.*

Duterte appointee Greco Belgica, commissioner of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), said they have been conducting series of operations to weed out corrupt officials in the BIR , but this was the first time PACC was able to arrest a high official like that of Revenue District Officer (RDO)

Back in June of this year, three personnel of the Makati Revenue District office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) who got involved in extortion scam were also captured by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents working with the PACC.

BIR Regional Investigation Division (BIR-RID) Special Investigators Arturo D. Buniol, Gary V. Atanacio and Edgardo Y. Javier were arrested last June 21.

The officials were reportedly caught red handed in possession of a portion of the PHP600, 000 marked money, which they extorted from a restaurant owner, whom the BIR had supposedly assessed for a tax liability of PHP1.2 million.

June 2018 - Officials of the National Bureau of Investigation present to media three BIR personnel who were arrested for extortion.





Source: Manila Times, UNTV