FINANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has accused the lawyers of cigarette manufacturing firm, Mighty Corporation, of "obstructing" government efforts to look into company's business activities.
President Rodrigo Duterte has earlier ordered the Department of Finance and the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs to determine the correct amount that Mighty should pay in deficiency taxes after it allegedly used fake stamps.
"We have not received any written order from the President. [BIR Commissioner] Billy Dulay has not even finished quantifying how much (Mighty) should pay," Dominguez said.
Dominguez added that "we are having a hard time determining how much the taxes should be because the lawyers of Mighty have been obstructing us."
Earlier, Dominguez said the BIR and BOC are busy gathering evidence for submission to the Department of Justice (DOJ), "preparatory to the government's filing of an air-tight case against Mighty Corp. for tax evasion and other possible charges."
"The government needs to first establish strong evidence to pin down this cigarette manufacturer on such charges," Dominguez said. "We must make sure the charges stick not only to haul the guilty parties, including their possible cohorts in the government, into jail but to send a clear message to big-time tax dodgers that the Duterte administration is dead set on putting an end to their nefarious activities and sending all of them behind bars."
Dominguez issued this statement on the heels of his call on the BIR and BOC last week to file soon enough the appropriate charges against persons and companies proven to be the owners of P2.2 billion-worth of smuggled and counterfeit tobacco products, shoes and clothes that government agents had seized in a series of raids.
Among the seized goods were cigarette brands manufactured by Mighty Corp. with fake tax stamps that BOC operatives had seized in raids in Pampanga and the cities of General Santos and Zamboanga in Mindanao.
"They (BOC and BIR) should speed up their investigations and also look into the possible involvement of bureaucrats acting as protectors of these large-scale tax evasion attempts," he said.
According to Action for Economic Reform senior economist and trustee Jo-Ann Diosana, "If the law is followed, Mighty must pay as much as P15 billion in taxes."
Not yet off the hook
Mighty Corporation is not yet off the hook, even after President Rodrigo Duterte expressed willingness to cancel the filing of tax evasion case against it, in exchange of P3-billion settlement, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said Friday.
Panelo said the President’s proposal to reconcile with Mighty Corp. owner Alexander Wongchuking is in accordance with the law.
Panelo, however, said Wongchuking could be able to come to terms with the government, only if there is “reasonable doubt” on the accusations hurdled against him and if he does not commit “fraud violation.”
“The President does not propose anything that is not legal. Of course, it’s always legal. But other than law, there are requirements before we come up with a compromise and the President is aware of that. So we will always follow what the law says,” Panelo told reporters.
“Under the law, there should be doubt on the claim against them – there is reasonable doubt. Or there should be no fraud violation on their part because they will not qualify [for settlement],” he added.
Panelo's statement came after Duterte said he would clear Wongchuking from obligation, if he is able to pay his tax liabilities from P1.5 billion to P3 billion.
The cigarette company has unpaid excise tax of P1.08 billion as it only paid P325 million of P1.4 billion in duties and taxes for the imports made from 2011 to 2013.
The President earlier ordered Wongchuking's arrest for economic sabotage but the latter remains free because no case has been filed against him yet. (SDR/Ruth Abbey Gita/SunStar Philippines)