THE Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor indicted an employee of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) who allegedly falsified a public document that led to the transfer of a lot title to another person in 2013.
Prosecutor Mario Ley Gidayawan found evidence to charge Teofanes Segun, BIR-Cebu City South revenue officer, with falsification of public document, which is punishable under Art. 171 of the Revised Penal Code.
“The clear presumption is that he is the material author of the falsification. And he could not have done it without taking advantage of his official position as BIR revenue officer,” read the resolution penned by Prosecutor Mario Ley Gidayawan.
A case was filed by the heirs of Irenea Lopez, who accused Segun and Mary Ann Arnado of falsification of a public document before the City Prosecutor’s Office.
The Lopez heirs executed an extrajudicial settlement of estate with the deed of absolute sale over a parcel of land in favor of Arnado last Sept. 26, 2013.
In March 2014, a Lopez heir went to the BIR office to get a copy of the estate clearance from Segun supposedly for processing and payments of the BIR transactions.
But Segun did not release to the Lopez heir the requested document, so the latter decided to check the document with the Office of the Registry of Deeds.
Lopez said she got shocked when she discovered that a deed of absolute sale and a new transfer of certificate of title was issued to Arnado.
The document was allegedly falsified since the deed of absolute sale was reportedly issued on Oct. 24, 2013, when Lopez said that their father died on July 12, 2005.
Replying to the charges, Segun said that he, being the BIR revenue officer, had no participation in the execution of the deed of sale.
He said he merely relied on the validity of the notarized deed of sale presented to him by Arnado for the processing of the capital tax gains and issuance of a certificate authorizing the registration. Segun said there was no evidence that he falsified the deed of sale.
In the resolution, Prosecutor Gidayawan gave weight to Lopez’s allegations against Segun. Arnado paid Segun P400,000 for the processing of the capital gains tax after presenting the falsified deed of sale to the Register of Deeds.
“Even assuming that he is not the author of the falsified deed of sale, still, he made use of it, took advantage of it and profited, thereby,” read Gidayawan’s resolution.
On the other hand, the prosecutor dismissed for lack of evidence the complaint against Arnado.