Roxas employees probed for ‘taking’ bribe money
ROXAS City – Five personnel of the City Assessor’s Office and the City Treasurer’s Office are being investigated for allegedly accepting bribe money from East Clermont Corp. owned by Romulo Capunong.
City Assessor Samuel Narciso was accused of receiving P1 million from Malou Ignacio, a representative of East Clermont Corp.
Ignacio allegedly asked to change the year of Tax Declaration No. 5686 and Tax Declaration No. 5687 to “2017” from “2014,” thus reducing the tax to P1,029,323.
Moreover, Joel Atienza and Vivian Medina of the City Assessor’s Office allegedly forged three tax declarations to reduce the market and zonal values of East Clermont Corp. properties.
Narciso was accused of receiving P270,000, and P100,000 for each of Atienza and Medina.
In addition, Nilo Araque and Connie Bartolo of the City Treasurer’s Office allegedly accepted P50,000 each for this transaction.
Mayor Angel Alan Celino ordered Economic Enterprise Consultant Carmen Andrade to investigate.
All the five officials denied the allegation.
Capunong also denied bribing Narciso and said he was committed to paying his taxes.
According to Andrade, East Clermont Corp.’s tax bill from 2013 to 2017 amounted to P2,296,521 but the company paid only P109,417.
“The c i t y will l ose an estimated i ncome of P1,029,323,” Andrade said.
The valuation of East Clermont Corp.’s properties was too low based on their market and zonal values, she added./
PN
ILOILO City – Western Visayas will host t he localization of coffee road map from Aug. 2 to 4, said Regional Director Rebecca Rascon of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Rascon s a i d c o f f e e stakeholders in Western, Central and Eastern Visayas and the Negros Island Region would be present to map out the future of the coffee industry.
P r e s i d e n t Rodri g o Duterte in March approved the Philippine cacao and coffee industry road maps, which are vital instruments to provide direction to the concerned stakeholders toward sustainable and globally competitive Philippine cacao and coffee industries, and seen to contribute in achieving food security and poverty alleviation.
Rascon said these road maps need to be localized per
or per region. On the first day of the event, the stakeholders will discuss about their inputs like how to grow coffee, how to harvest coffee, how to choose the variety of coffee that are suitable to plant, among others.
On t he s econd day, simultaneous workshops will be conducted by region.
“They will come up with their own strategic objectives on how to move forward the coffee industry in their region,” Rascon said.
In Region 6, Rascon said a regional coffee and Iloilo coffee councils were already created.
Enrolled in the regional coffee council were the provinces of Iloilo, Antique and Capiz.
On the last day of the event, the stakeholders would talk about market opportunities of coffee.
The three- day event in August will help spell out the future of the coffee industry in the Visayas, said Rascon. ( PNA)