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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Land appraisal division chief arrested for 'corruption'
By Karlon N. Rama
CEBU CITY -- A division head of the Office of the Cebu City Assessor was arrested Tuesday after allegedly demanding and receiving money in exchange for approving a tax declaration application.
Lawyer Ernesto Macabare of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7, in an interview Tuesday, identified the official as Engracio Lumangtad of the Land Appraisal Division. He is currently in custody and will be charged before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas Wednesday.
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It was the NBI 7 that conducted the operation against Lumangtad.
In an affidavit, complainant Francisco Bontuyan narrated how Lumangtad asked for P50,000 to process his application for a tax declaration covering a parcel of land in Barangay Pit-os.
The land belonged to Bontuyan's mother and stretches 2,426 square meters. The tax declaration was intended as a supporting document for the issuance of a title.
Solicited
The solicitation, he said, was done in City Hall last February 11. And that, he added, wasn't the first time.
He said he was forced to pay Lumangtad P80,000 sometime in 2006 just so his application for a tax declaration for another parcel of land, 796 square meters and located in another part of Barangay Pit-os, would be processed.
The P80,000, which Bontuyan claimed was paid in cash inside Lumangtad's car, was a step down from the original demand of P100,000.
Macabare, the NBI executive officer, said the processing of tax declarations doesn't come with fees above what one pays to the agency itself.
"According to the complainant when he came to us, the respondent was asking money for something that the government already pays him to do," he said.
Grease
Lumangtad declined to be interviewed when visited at the NBI holding center late Tuesday afternoon, upon the advice of his counsel. He, however, denied the charge.
Bontuyan, in his affidavit, said he first met Lumangtad in 2006 when he went to the Office of the City Assessor to apply for a tax declaration for his mother's property.
He said he was attended to by a clerk he identified as Madel Nuñez, but was referred to Lumangtad.
Lumangtad, during that transaction, supposedly asked for P100,000 to "get things done."
Bontuyan said he negotiated for a lower amount, saying P100,000 was too much for him to raise. Lumangtad agreed and the payoff was allegedly done inside Lumangtad's car while they were parked outside the house of Bontuyan's bother in Talamban.
Bontuyan said he tried to forget about the whole experience, which he described as having been "against his moral conviction."
Daughter
However, when his mother instructed him to secure a similar tax declaration for the other parcel of land, he had to return to the Office of the Cebu City Assessor.
Bontuyan said he didn't want to repeat the ordeal.
He had his daughter Ethel go to the office in his stead.
He said he had his daughter to look for Nuñez so she could file their application the normal way.
However, he said, Nuñez ended up referring Ethel to Lumangtad who allegedly told her that he and her father already have an agreement over properties.
This, Bontuyan said, prompted him to come and see Lumangtad, who asked for P50,000.
He said Lumangtad contacted him last Feb. 8 on the pretext of following up his sketch plan for his tax declaration application. During their conversation, he claimed, the government official followed up on his demand.
Demands
Bontuyan, in his affidavit, said he told Lumangtad that he has yet to raise the money.
"I'm totally against the demands for money made by Engracio (Lumangtad) because he is making money out of his line of work, which he should be doing in the first place as his job," he said in the affidavit.
So, he went to the NBI.
In a separate affidavit issued after the entrapment, Bontuyan said he went to see Lumangtad and told him the money was ready.
Lumangtad then gave him the documents he wanted.
For the payment, they did what they did in 2006: they went for a ride and transacted their business while parked outside the house of Bontuyan's brother in Talamban.
But there was a difference.
NBI agents were in place to arrest Lumangtad as soon as the money changed hands. (Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Bacolod. (February 20, 2008 issue)
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