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THE
technical working group (TWG) tasked to monitor the
litigation of all civil and criminal cases involving the
tax-credit scam has been activated by the Department of
Finance (DOF).
Lawyer
Tomas Tagra, who represents the Bureau of Customs (BOC)
in the TWG, told BusinessMirror the group has been
discussing what each agency can bring in, with its
respective legal strength, in the task of litigating a
complex web of hundreds of cases pending in several
venues.
The
government had been earlier estimated to have lost a
total of P5 billion to P8 billion from the series of
transactions, mostly between 1994 and 1998, involving
the use of fraudulently obtained tax-credit certificates
(TCCs).
Last
week the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) suffered a
setback when a division of the Supreme Court (SC)
reversed a Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) ruling upholding
the BIR’s more than P500-million collection claim
against oil giant Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., which
used some of the TCCs tainted in the scam. The
government is expected to appeal the SC decision, but
the setback underscored once more the significance of
the new TWG’s work in supporting the efforts of all
state agencies involved in the prosecution of the cases.
“Although there is no formal outline of the bylaws of
the TWG, we are studying our legal moves,” Tagra said.
Tagra
said under the TWG, they will utilize “other defenses
which are not available to the BoC, but are available to
the BIR.”
Composing the TWG, aside from the BOC, is the BIR, the
one-stop-shop (OSS) of the DOF, the Office of the
Solicitor General (OSG) and the Department of Justice (DoJ).
It is chaired by the secretary of finance.
Both the
OSG and the DoJ would play a “special role” in the
litigation of several pending cases filed by the BoC.
At the
TWG’s initial meeting in December, lawyer Jennifer
Sobremonte asked Tagra to “bring the documents to be
turned over to the secretariat as agreed upon during the
interagency meeting that was held November 9, 2007.”
So far,
the BOC is having, as expected, a tough time in the
litigation of several civil cases pending before the
OSG.
Those
cases with criminal aspect are filed at the DOJ.
As of
November 2007, the civil cases are Oilink International
Corp., Pilipinas Shell Corp., Dynamic Logistics, Manila
Jumbo Palace, Kultura Knitex Corp., Zhong Hua & Heong
Chong, Unitrans Subic Ventures Corp., Trackspeed
International Motorworks Corp., Air Philippines Corp.,
People’s Air Cargo & Warehousing Co. Inc., Integrated
Multi-Cotton Mills Inc., Steel Asia Manufacturing Corp.,
E.V. Diaz Brokerage Inc., Champs Grament Manufacturing
Inc., Travellers Insurance and Surety Corp., Master
Colours System Inc., Kemwater Philippines Corp., Marina
Sales Inc., Dealco Farms Inc., Unitex Micro-Electronics,
GmBH, Diago Philippine Freeport, Philippine Airlines,
Kraft Foods, Surplus Importers & Brokerage Association,
Tung Cheng Textile Corp., Solid Mills, Noah’s Ark Sugar
Refinery, Union Refinery Corporation, El Greco Ship
Manning & Management Corporation, Fiber Technology,
Narciso Yting, Isuzu Philippines Corp., and Picop
Resources Inc.
Deputy
Commissioner Reynaldo Umali has appointed lawyer Ariel
Radovan to monitor the development of the civil cases in
various courts—the RTCs, OSG, the CTA, the Court of
Appeals, and the SC.
Tagra
said the OSS, whose day-to-day operations are led by
Executive Director Ernesto Hiansen, is the principal
player in the TWG as it also serves as the secretariat;
it sets the meetings for the group.
“Since
they are the ones who initiated this, they serve as the
nerve center,” Tagra said. The OSS office will be the
repository of the official documents. “We have submitted
already the relevant documents last December 7,” Tagra
said.
Deputy
Commissioner Umali, chief of Customs’ revenue collection
and monitoring group (RCMG), said his office would
“re-assess its position on the tax case of the Chingkoe
couple.”
On
August 2007, the CA nullified a justice department
resolution withdrawing the estafa charge filed before
the Quezon City RTC against businessman Felix Chingkoe
and his wife, Rosita.
Felix is
a prime government witness who helped the government
prosecutors piece together details of the scam where his
estranged brother, Faustino, is a key player. Faustino
had booted out Felix in the 1990s from the family firms
that were later implicated as the vehicles used to
obtain the TCCs under fraudulent claims.
Faustino
is facing dozens of criminal and civil charges before
various courts.
The CA,
meanwhile, ordered the Quezon City RTC branch 126 to
proceed with the trial of Felix Chingkoe involving the
sale of P20 million worth of polyester Shilon fiber in
2000.
The CA
reversed the ruling of former Justice Secretary Simeon
Datumanong.
The
petitioners in the suit were Francis Pangilinan and
retired Philippine Constabulary Gen. Edgardo Abenina,
members of the management committee (Mancom) created by
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),
representing Chingkoe.
The CA
said there was circumstantial evidence of
misappropriation when the Shilon fiber delivered to the
warehouse leased by Chingkoe could no longer be found
after Pangilinan and Abenina called for an accounting.
The SEC,
acting on Felix Chingkoe’s petition, had created the
Mancom in 2000 to take control and custody of the assets
and properties of DKC Holdings Corp. and its 33
subsidiaries.
Mancom
entrusted the raw materials to Chingkoe for safekeeping,
but Chingkoe reportedly disposed of the materials
without Mancom’s knowledge and failed to account for the
goods when ordered to do so. |
