FORMER Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. took a swipe at his successor Martin Andanar on Monday for "prematurely" asserting that revenue stamps for cigarettes and liquors are overpriced.
"As Communications Secretary, it is his (Andanar's) duty to first verify the accuracy of reports being fed to him before he discusses these publicly," Coloma said in a statement.
Coloma was referring to Andanar's statement that he already ordered an audit of the National Printing Office (NPO) and APO Productions Unit Inc. (APO) to know who are responsible for the unlawful production and distribution of tax stamps.
The printing of revenue stamps for liquor products is being performed by the NPO in Quezon City, while the printing of revenue stamps for cigarettes is done at the APO security printing plant at the Lima Technology Park in Malvar, Batangas.
NPO and APO are under the supervision of Presidential Communications Office (PCO) currently headed by Andanar. PCO is formerly known as Presidential Communications Operations Office when it was still headed by Coloma.
"We have to fix this," Andanar had said in a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. "I have ordered an audit… to show the public that it has been happening… It's already happening before we came in."
Andanar said the information was passed on to him by an official of Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
The said BIR official allegedly told him that the overprinting of tax seals was being done by somebody "inside" the PNO.
"It's difficult to get evidence, but the BIR said it's [true]. So now, they have to produce the evidence that there was double printing of the tax seals for cigarettes and liquor," Andanar said.
Coloma said Andanar "may have prematurely affirmed the insinuations of alleged wrongdoing even absent the presentation of clear, concrete and convincing proof in a fair and impartial fact-finding inquiry."
He then assured that "fraud or tampering" will not take place because "stringent quality, process and security control measures" have been put in place. (Sunnex)