New DOJ chief assures BIR on priority of tax evasion cases

The Department of Justice under Acting Secretary Benjamin Caguioa will give priority to the resolution of tax evasion cases filed before the department by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

In a press briefing with BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto Henares after the latter filed tax evasion cases against several individuals, Caguioa said Thursday he would work more closely with Henares, his classmate at the Ateneo Law School, to speed up the disposition of their cases.

Caguioa said BIR had filed 398 complaints with the DOJ since the start of the Aquino administration in 2010, and only 72 were either filed or set for filing before the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA).

Of the 398, he said 282 are still pending or submitted for resolution, while 44 have been either dismissed or subject for further requirements.

“BIR Commissioner Kim Henares, who was my classmate in Ateneo law school, has asked to give a little more focus on their concerns. And of course as public servants, we will do that,” he said.

“Immediately after this, I’ll be discussing this matter further with Kim and meet with Task Force constituted at DOJ to find out where we are on these other 282 cases,” he added.

Caguioa thinks the resolution of the cases filed by the BIR can still be improved.

“As good as this thing has been, there’s always… and that’s our job, continuing job, to find room for improvement,” he further said. For her part, Henares said she is not blaming the DOJ considering the workload of their prosecutors, even as she asked that the tax evasion cases should at least be resolved.

She added: “I guess the numbers, all of us are overworked. That’s the reality in government. Of course there are people who will also complain about us. There are things that we have not been able to resolve because it’s a function of number of staff and a number of things.”

Henares admitted she was not satisfied with how the DOJ is handling the BIR cases, and explained: “No. Nobody is ever satisfied. For me, we’ve not filed any case that is not strong. That’s why we’re not so satisfied [about the rate of resolution]. Just like any cases you always bat for 100 percent, but life is, you cannot get 100 percent.”

Still, she said, there should be a timely resolution and filing of the cases before the CTA.

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