Government appeals Sandigan ruling on tax credit certificate scam

MANILA, Philippines - The government has appealed before the Supreme Court a recent decision of the Sandiganbayan junking a plunder case against former Department of Finance (DOF) officials and textile traders Faustino and Gloria Chan Chingkoe in one of the many graft cases involving the multimillion tax credit scam.   

In a 48-page petition for review, the Office of the Special Prosecutor asked the High Court to reverse the ruling of the first division of the anti-graft court last March 9 dismissing the plunder case for lack of probable cause due to fatal errors in information filed by the Office of the Ombudsman.   

Special Prosecutor Wendell Barreras-Sulit, through the Office of the Solicitor General, alleged that the Sandiganbayan abused its discretion in interpreting Section 2 of RA 7080 (plunder law) by equating lack of probable cause against the accused to failure of prosecution to establish acquisition of ill-gotten wealth or monetary consideration.   

Section 2 of the plunder law penalizes “any public officer who, by himself or in connivance with members of his family, relatives by affinity or consanguinity, business associates, subordinates or other persons, amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt criminal acts... in the aggregate amount or total value of at least P50-million,” punishable by reclusion perpetua.   

This provision further states that any person who participated with the said public officer in the commission of an offense contributing to the crime of plunder shall likewise be punished for such offense.   

“Petitioner is of the view that evidence of receipt by the public officer of the ill-gotten wealth or of proceeds of the same is satisfied by evidence of receipt of said wealth by his co-conspirators. Section 2 of RA 7080 requires merely that the public officer participate in the act of amassing, acquiring or accumulating ill-gotten wealth. The intent of the provision is to penalize the pillage regardless of who among the conspirators ultimately benefited from it,” she argued. 

In the assailed ruling, the anti-graft court nullified the arrest warrants against the Chingkoe couple, owners of the Filstar Textile Industrial Corp., and former DOF officials for lack of probable cause. 

Also cleared in the plunder case were former DOF Assistant Secretary Antonio Belicena, also the administrator of the One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center; former center deputy executive director Uldarico Andutan Jr.; tax specialist Rowena Malonzo; Filstar corporate secretary Grace Chingkoe; and Filstar representative Catalina Aranas Bautista. 

They were earlier accused of defrauding the government of P74 million through the issuance of tax credit certificates (TCCs) to a company not qualified to receive them. 

The Sandiganbayan based its ruling on the documents filed to support the case, including the affidavit of Faustino’s brother Felix Chingkoe, the investigation report of the Special Presidential Task Force 156 and the joint resolution of the Ombudsman. 

“A painstaking and exhaustive examination of these documents reveal no single shred of finding that any of the public officers charged herein amassed, accumulated, and acquired ill-gotten wealth to the tune of at least P50 million,” the court said. 

It said that the documents only alleged that the DoF officials conspired with the Chingkoes and other individuals in issuing TCCs to Filstar based on spurious documents. The TCCs were later used to pay Filstar’s tax obligations and that of Petron and Shell, to whom Filstar assigned the certificates. But these were not enough to show an act of plunder, it said. 

“None of these documents, however, point to a scintilla of evidence that the proceeds resulting from the TCC’s assignment or conversion by the Spouses Chingkoe landed in the pockets of any public officer,” it said. 

“The crucial link establishing that the public officers charged herein were given by Filstar or the Spouses Chingkoe any amounts generated by the TCC’s assignment or conversion into any monetary value remains missing,” it added.