Sandigan dumps 90 tax credit scam cases

THE Sandiganbayan ruled recently to allow the Office of the Ombudsman to withdraw all 90 cases embarking on multi-billions worth of tax credit scams dating back 2003 backwards.

In a resolution, the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division granted the government’s motion to withdraw 44 counts of graft and 46 counts of estafa through falsification of public documents filed against officials of the Department of Finance (DOF) and textile traders in 2013.

The cases involved alleged fraudulent issuance by the DOF One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center (DOF Center) of tax credit certificates (TCCs) to textile and garment manufacturing companies between 1995 to 1998.

According to the result of the Senate investigations in 1998, between P5.3 to 6 billion worth of fraudulent TCCs were issued by the DOF Center. 

Among those named accused in the case were late DOF undersecretary and Center executive director Antonio Belicena, deputy executive director Uldarico Andutan, senior tax specialist Charmelle Recoter, tax specialist Purita Napeñas, clerk Cherry Gomez, reviewer Asuncion Magdaet, and textile traders who were indicted as private defendants.

Belicena passed away on June 2, 2021 while the cases against Antudan and Magdaet were dismissed on technicalities owing to inordinate delay in 2015.

While the Office of the Ombudsman claimed that it had volumes of documentary evidence that would have helped establish how fraud was committed against the government, without the witnesses to identify, authenticate, and relate them to the crime, the cases were dead in the water.

Ombudsman Samuel Martires approved the recommendation of the panel of prosecutors to withdraw all 90 charges on May 21, 2021. The formal motion withdrawing the cases was filed with the anti-graft court on June 17, 2021.

The prosecution had planned to present lawyer Allan Ventura, the former executive director of the Special Presidential Task Force 156 which investigated the TCC scam; lawyer Gerville Reyes, Task Force 156 legal consultant; and Arlene Burga, a government auditor.

Based on the memorandum submitted by prosecutors dated February 16, 2021, Ventura had already passed away on August 11, 2016, the whereabouts of Reyes are unknown, and Burga is no longer in government service after resigning her post in 2008.

As advanced by the prosecution, it would only be able to prove the first element, i.e., the accused were public officers at the time relevant to these cases. However, (it) would be hard-pressed to establish the second and third elements considering that the material witnesses can no longer be placed on the witness stand,” the Sandiganbayan said.

Likewise, the court sustained the position of the prosecutors that without the same witnesses, there was no way to prove the authenticity, due execution, and veracity of the contents of the documentary evidence.

Again, the non-presentation to the witness stand of the aforementioned witnesses is fatal to the case of the prosecution. Wherefore, the prosecution’s motion to withdraw information with leave of court is hereby granted,” the Sandiganbayan declared.

Bail bonds posted by all the remaining accused were ordered released to them and all the warrants of arrest and hold departure orders lifted and set aside.

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