Nine employees of the Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) have been sacked or suspended for trying to evade paying taxes by not disclosing all their assets and for living beyond their means.
One, a customs examiner at the Port of Manila, drew an unspecified jail term. Seven others were fired and barred from civil service for the rest of their lives, while another was suspended.
The Department of Finance (DOF) acted against the erring staff through its anti-graft arm, the Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS), which secured eight Ombudsman decisions against the offenders in the first quarter of the year.
Ana Marie Concepcion Maglasang, a customs examiner at the South Harbor, was sentenced to prison for not declaring in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) her Ford Expedition and Pajero sports utility vehicles and houses she owned at Tagaytay Royale Estates in Tagaytay City and Valle Verde in Pasig City.
Three BIR and three BOC officials were dismissed for undisclosed cars, properties, extravagant collection of real estates and businesses. They also face perpetual disqualification from civil service, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and forfeiture proceedings on their ill-gotten wealth.
They are Zenaida Chang, BIR assistant commissioner of financial and administrative services; spouses Marlon and Emma Pascual, BIR revenue officers I and II; Prudencio Lopez Macaranas, customs operations officer V; Eduardo Ginea Wong, acting chief of BOC Assessment Division in Cagayan de Oro; and Rafael Mendoza Merencilla, chief customs operations officer.
Marina de Guzman, BIR assistant regional director of Quezon City Revenue Region 7, is suspended without pay for not declaring several properties in Bulacan and Cavite.
Paulino Elevado, a Porsche-driving BOC clerk, faces fines, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and a ban from re-employment in any government branch including government-owned and controlled corporations, for not disclosing his businesses of buying and selling of cars and general merchandise, and small businesses. –– Roumina M. Pablo
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