The tables have turned

The alleged accuser is now the accused. First it was the story of agribusiness giant Del Monte Corp. reportedly in cahoots with some officials and personnel of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to defraud the public coffers of some P30 billion by allowing Del Monte to pay only a fraction of what it owes the government in terms of taxes.

A certain Danilo Lihaylihay, who later turns out to be an expert in weaving accusations against government officials, filed a plunder complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman against several officials and employees of the bureau, including BIR commissioner Caesar Dulay, the latter for allegedly allowing this to happen. The same complaint was given to the Office of the President.

The allegation prompted Congress to conduct an inquiry into the Del Monte-BIR controversy, but the hearings weren’t even a quarter as exciting as the investigations involving another revenue collecting agency of the government — the Bureau of Customs.

During the hearings, Del Monte and BIR were able to show there was nothing illegal with the reduction in the private company’s tax liabilities. In fact, such reduction happens all the time because the initial BIR tax assessment is not always correct and the taxpayer concerned can argue that it owes less.

As it was already obvious that continuing with the hearings would be a waste of time and resources House senior deputy minority leader and Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza said the issues on the alleged BIR-Del Monte collusion to defraud the government have already been exhausted in the preliminary hearing conducted by the ways and means committee.

Atienza said the bottomline was whether there was a loss on the part of the government, both BIR and Del Monte said there was none.

Lihaylihay had claimed that the concerned BIR officials and employees defrauded the government by reducing Del Monte’s billions of pesos in tax obligations covering the period 2011 to 2014 (about P30 billion) to only P65.4 million.

However, records presented by BIR and Del Monte showed that the P65.4 million represents the agribusiness giant’s total tax deficiency after paying more than P5.9 billion for the three-year period.

While the congressional investigation was going on, a parallel inquiry was reportedly being conducted by BIR deputy commissioner Jesus Clint Aranas who ordered 17 officials and employees to explain why no disciplinary action should be taken against them. A unit led by Aranas at the BIR was furnished a copy of the complaint, similar to the one given to the Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of the President.

However, there are those who say that Aranas should have reported the complaint to Dulay instead of conducting his own investigation. Aranas did not include Dulay in his probe for reasons unknown.

It is also said the BIR office duly authorized to issue such show-cause order is the Internal Affairs Service which is not under Aranas.

According to reports, when he was told to stop the probe and instead allow the secretary of finance to investigate the matters alleged in the Lihaylihay complaint, Aranas said the BIR chief was preventing him from doing his job.

Now, old rumors have resurfaced about Aranas wanting the top BIR post with a little twist: he now wants Dulay out. So could Aranas have orchestrated the Lihaylihay complaint? And now the tables have turned so to speak. It seems Aranas is now the one being investigated following news reports that his statement of assets, liabilities and networth (SALN) does not match with other records in so far as the extent of his financial interests.

According to one news report, Aranas, in his SALN owns shares in 18 companies namely Westinvest Trading Co. Inc., Libya Co. Inc., Luxemco Co.Inc., Untold Treasures Investment Inc., Magallon Integrated Holding Corp., Legal Process Outsourcing Manila, Liyam Property Inc., Treasure House Holdings Inc., Genez Investment Corp., GEI Investment Inc., ICube Inc., Community Rural Bank of Magallon Inc., Aratenk Agricultural Industries Inc., Softmedia Entertainment Solutions Inc., Certek Holdings Philippine Corp., Vista Land and Lifescape, Resolen Inc., and Wolf Spider Games and Entertainment Inc.

But in his biodata posted on the internet, he claims to have interests in Softmedia Entertainment Inc., EI Investment, ICube Inc., Genez Investment Corp., Treasures House Holding Inc., Zeus Holdings Inc., Fujifilms Phils. Inc., Fujifilms Optics Inc., Phil Epson Property Holdings, Aeons, Sumitomo Mitsui Corp., First Scene Philippines and Epson Precision. Eight of these companies were not mentioned in his SALN.

There are also reports about Aranas using different tax identification numbers (TIN) in the companies where he holds interests in.

The plot thickens.