Friday, May 16, 2008 3 finance officials suspended
THREE officials of the Department of Finance (DOF) were ordered suspended by the Sandiganbayan Second Division for their alleged involvement in the tax credit certificate (TCC) scam.
The three defendants are Asuncion Magdaet, supervising tax specialist of the DOF-One Stop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center; Emelita Tizon, administrative Aide IV; and Purita Napeñas, tax specialist II.
Magdaet was accused of four counts of estafa and four counts of graft, Napeñas faces two counts of each case while Tizon was named in one count each.
The graft court directed Finance Secretary Margarito Teves to place the three under preventive suspension for 90 days.
Division chairman and Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval wrote the resolution concurred in by Associate Justices Teresita Diaz-Baldos and Samuel Martires.
Cases against the defendants stemmed from anomalies discovered by graft investigators on TCC Nos. 009127, 009240, 009241 and 009244 with a combined value of P7.2 million granted to Devmark Textile Industries, Inc. from January to February 1998.
Ombudsman prosecutors claimed the textile firm’s application for tax credit was approved although it submitted spurious documents including import entry, internal revenue declarations, bill of lading, export declarations and bank credit memorandum.
Government lawyers filed the motion for the suspension of the three defendants on December 18, 2007 but none of them fled their comment or opposition despite “ample opportunity” to do so.
“In the case at bar, a perusal of the Information filed against the accused reveals that the same was apparently valid as it conforms with the criteria for sufficiency… the suspension sought is warranted,” the court declared. (Sunnex)
