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Thursday, March 16, 2006
BIR official caught in entrapment, charged
Patrons at the White Gold Club food court had a front row seat to what might as well be a police thriller last Monday as undercover NBI agents nabbed a BIR examiner in the middle of a payoff, in full view of an unsuspecting crowd.
Omar Mamongcara, revenue officer 2 of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) district office in Mandaue City, was still counting the money when agents arrived, slapped cuffs on his hands, took him to custody and led him away.
He was caught with P10,000 in bills previously dusted with a special tracing powder handed by complainant Elenita Maranga allegedly exchange for speedily facilitating the papers of an P800,000-property sale.
Mamongcara was brought to the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for inquest investigation yesterday but his lawyer, Luis Seno, waived his rights under inquest.
He said his client opted to answer the charges directly in court.
Fight
In place of a hearing between Seno and the arresting agents, anti-graft office investigators instead witnessed a fight erupt between a TV reporter and one of Mamongcara’s daughters who was irked at the station’s news crew who took footage of her father.
The anti-graft office yesterday charged Mamongcara with direct bribery, violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials before the Regional Trial Court (RTC).
Ombudsman Director Edgardo Canton recommended bail at P50,000 but Mamongacara was not able to raise and submit the amount on time. He remains under National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) custody.
This is not the first time elements of the NBI arrested a BIR employee for anti-graft related incidents.
In 2001, agents took custody of one Romeo “Jimmy” Napoles after a P10,000 payoff done inside a fast food outlet along Gen. Maxilom Ave. The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas ordered him dismissed from service last April 2004.
Napoles’ arrest came almost three years after BIR examiner Benjamin Gamorot was also entrapped for a similar offense by members of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force on July 29, 1999. He was also dismissed from service.
Mamongcara declined to issue a statement when approached by reporters after his arrest. Among his first visitors were officials from the Office of Muslim Affairs.
According to the NBI, Maranga reported to their office and claimed that Mamongcara asked her for money in exchange for facilitating her transactions hassle-free.
The exchange was to happen at the White Gold Club department store food court at 1 p.m. The White Gold Club is located at the North Reclamation Area.
Agents Rey Villordon and Jed Hife, in a joint-statement, said they took Mamongcara into custody immediately after the exchange.
Entrapment
They narrated that they went into the department store together with Maranga a few minutes before 1 p.m. last Monday, but remained at a safe distance to avoid being detected.
They then mingled with other patrons, taking a seat at one of the tables while continuing to track Maranga who, at that time, had approached a bespectacled man sitting across one of the shops.
Maranga sat beside the man, handed him the envelope and then signaled that the transaction was complete by standing up.
“As a cue for us to come, Maranga stood up and we immediately rushed to the male person and identified and announced out authority to him. We then placed him under arrest and appraised him of his constitutional and statutory rights,” they said.
Hife, for her part, then called the other NBI agents stationed at the perimeter to secure the scene.
“At the NBI office, Mamongcara was brought to the forensic chemistry section for laboratory examination for the presence of fluorescent powder and was found positive. Thereafter, Mamongcara was booked, photographed and fingerprinted,” the report read. (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 16, 2006 issue)
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