Tipster asks BIR: Where’s my P1.9 M?

A tipster who claims he was stiffed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) out of P1.9 million in reward money is now telling it all to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Felicito Dolar Jr., of Bliss project, La Paz district in Iloilo City, has filed charges of estafa and graft before the DOJ against BIR Commissioner Jose Mario Buñag and three other BIR officials for not releasing his reward money in 1998 after he led investigators to alleged tax cheats.

Senior State Prosecutor Peter Ong said that aside from Buñag, the other BIR officials charged were assistant commissioner of BIR legal service James Roldan, law division legal analyst lawyer Germu Sabayle and legal service acting assistant commissioner Milagros Regalado.

In an interview, Ong said he has already issued a subpoena for Buñag, Roldan, Sabayle and Regalado to appear before the DOJ on Jan. 13 next year to begin the preliminary investigation of Dolar’s complaint.

Dolar said Buñag and the three BIR officials violated Republic Act 2338 in relation to Section 269(c) of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 and Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and committed estafa under provisions of Article 315, Paragraph 2(a) of the Revised Penal Code.

Dolar said that on Oct. 15, 1998, he filed an affidavit of denunciation docketed as "Confidential Information No. 46-98" before the law division of the BIR in Quezon City against the estate of the late Aguedo del Rosario, a taxpayer in Iloilo City under the provisions of RA No. 2338 providing a reward to informers of violations of the Internal Revenue and Customs Law.

He said that through his information, the BIR was able to collect on Jan. 6, 2000 the amount of P3,422,152.26 and on Dec. 10, 2001, the amount of P4,471,496.59 or a total of P7,893,648.85 from the Del Rosario estate.

The BIR’s collection of the P7,893,648.85 from the Del Rosario estate, according to Dolar, entitled him to a corresponding reward of 25 percent of the recovered amount in accordance with RA No. 2338 and the DOJ Opinion No. 18, Series 2005, dated April 19, 2005, or P1,978,412.21.

Dolar claimed that, despite numerous demands he made with the BIR, the agency refused, with "manifest partiality, evident bad faith and gross inexcusable negligence," to pay his reward thus causing "undue damage and injury" to himself.

He said that on Oct. 25, 2001, Regalado issued an opinion denying his claim on the grounds that his relationship with a certain Edgar Allan del Rosario, a permanent employee of the BIR holding the position of Revenue Officer IV who entered the BIR on Sept. 11, 1989, "through false pretenses and fraudulent acts, by falsely pretending to possess qualification to resolve such issue when, in truth and in fact, the authority to pass upon the degree of relationship between the Internal Revenue Officer and the informer is vested upon the BIR commissioner and the Solicitor General, rendering the opinion null and void."

"If the BIR expects its taxpayers to pay their taxes promptly and honestly, so must it apply the same standard against itself in paying the informer’s reward because it is its legal obligation to do so," Dolar said.

Dolar said the BIR should not delay the payment of the informer’s reward or keep money not belonging to it because "no one, not even the State, should enrich oneself at the expense of another."

"Indeed, the State must lead by its own example of honor, dignity and uprightness," Dolar said in his complaint.

Dolar said the power to investigate or conduct preliminary investigation of charges against any public officers or employees may be exercised by an investigator or by any provincial or city prosecutor or their assistants, either in their regular capacities or as deputized Ombudsman prosecutors.

"Our honorable Supreme Court has already decreed that every public employee or servant must strive to render service to the people with utmost diligence and efficiency. Insolence and delay have no place in government service. The BIR, being the government’s collecting arm, should do no less. Government before citizenry must be law abiding," Dolar said.

Dolar said he included Sabayle in his complaint because Sabayle was the one who authored the ruling signed by Regalado which denied his entitlement to the P1,978,412.21 reward.

He said Regalado’s opinion denying his claims for reward "is without any legal basis and designed principally to harass and deny my rightful prerogatives to the informer’s reward provided for by RA No. 2338 and attended with manifest partiality, evident bad faith and gross inexcusable negligence."