EDITORIAL- Good start

Can a defendant resort to plea-bargaining after his arraignment? Simeon Marcelo, who as ombudsman worked for the indictment of Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, doesn’t think so. But just in case the Sandiganbayan approves Garcia’s proposed deal and he gets to keep at least P50 million of his family’s estimated P350 million in assets, the taxmen are ready.

The investigation of Garcia’s wealth, now being conducted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, is a welcome development. The BIR can take tips from the statements given by Garcia’s wife Clarita to customs and immigration authorities at the San Francisco airport where their two sons were accosted several years ago for failure to declare $100,000 in their possession.

In the statements, Clarita detailed the sources of their family’s wealth as well as the ways by which they avoided paying taxes in the Philippines. How a comptroller of one of Asia’s poorest armed forces accumulated such wealth should be an interesting story for tax collectors.

The BIR should not stop with Garcia. There are several others who have amassed vast wealth illegally in this country and gotten away with it. They include jueteng lords, smugglers, drug dealers and even kidnappers. Most of them have laundered their money and now operate legitimate businesses; some have entered politics.

President Aquino may not even need a truth commission to uncover large-scale corruption. A thorough tax probe, with documents showing the money trail, would bring out the truth about ill-gotten assets. For this task, the President need not worry about an uncooperative Ombudsman.

The BIR itself has serious problems with corruption among its personnel. But surely there are honest men and women in the bureau who can supervise the tax probes with competence and integrity. The government can also explore the possibility of tapping volunteers or private firms for help in doing the legwork. Ferreting out racketeers and the corrupt is a task that requires painstaking sleuthing and data gathering.

For such hard work, the rewards for society are enormous. In the United States, such probes ended the activities of Al Capone and other gangsters. A successful prosecution for tax evasion, which should include the seizure of ill-gotten assets, sends a powerful message that crime does not pay. It is one of the best deterrents to corruption. What good is pulling off a crime if you can’t enjoy its fruits?