Ex-Maguindanao mayor charged over non-remittance of employees' taxes, contributions

MANILA, Philippines — Former South Upi, Maguindanao mayor Abdullah Campong and former municipal treasurer Onofre Natividad are facing criminal charges before the Sandiganbayan over their alleged failure to remit the Pag-IBIG contributions and withholding taxes of the municipal officials and employees in 2007.

Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman on October 3, the charges against Campong and Natividad include eight counts of violation of Section 23 of Presidential Decree 1752 or the Home Development Mutual Fund Act and 12 counts of violation of Section 272 (b) of Republic Act 8424 or the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997.

Based on the information of the cases, Campong and Natividad “conspired” in willfully failing to remit to the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) the monthly contributions of its officials and employees from April to November 2007, amounting to P26,582.64 per month or a total of P212,661.12.

The two former officials were also accused of deliberately failing to remit to the Bureau of Internal Revenue the withholding taxes of its municipal officials and employees for 12 months or from January to December 2007.

The amount of the alleged non-remitted withholding taxes, however, was not indicated in the charge sheets.

Nonetheless, assistant special prosecutor Jorge Espinal said the Pag-IBIG contributions should have been remitted within 15 days from the date they were collected while the withholding taxes should have been remitted to the BIR every tenth day of the month, but the respondents failed to do so.

The ombudsman recommended to the Sandiganbayan to set Campong and Natividad's bail bond at P128,000 each.

Listed by the prosecution as among its witnesses against the respondents were members the municipal council, representatives from the office of the municipal accountant as well as officials of Pag-IBIG and BIR Cotabato City branch.

Campong and Natividad are also facing a graft case before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the alleged anomalous issuance of P8.8-million worth of checks in their names charged from the municipal government's account.

Based on the information of the case filed by the ombudsman in June of this year, the checks were issued to supposedly pay a loan worth P14 million from a certain Mulba Ampakay. The ombudsman said the checks were later cancelled, ”giving unwarranted benefits to the respondents and causing undue injury to Ampakay.”