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By Armand Nocum /Inquirer News Service
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Date Posted: 05:49:54 07/23/05 Sat
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In reply to:
By Roy Pelovello
's message, "New BIR wants to settle, not sue" on 04:11:58 07/23/05 Sat
No tax trial yet? Blame BIR, says DoJ
First posted 03:44am (Mla time) July 21, 2005
By Armand Nocum /Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A2 of the July 21, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
TOP justice department officials yesterday took umbrage at resigned Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima's taking to Malacañng his claim that none of the complaints filed by the finance department's Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program have made it to court in the five months since the RATE started.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said the reason why the complaints have not made it to the courts was that they were filed in a haphazard manner and wondered whether the RATE program was just "all for show."
The RATE, an intensified program against tax evasion launched last March, has set out to file charges against high-profile tax delinquents every week.
Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño blamed the delay on the fact that the evidence in some cases were not complete or lawyers from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) did not appear during preliminary investigations at the Department of Justice (DoJ).
In a letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before he resigned last week, Purisima complained of the delay and said the finance department might just decide to file the tax evasion cases before the Court of Tax Appeals or the local courts.
"It's their fault. They keep on filing motions to reopen the case even if it is already up for resolution,” said Zuño, citing the RATE's case against popular singer Regine Velasquez.
He said motions to reopen the case were being filed because the BIR wants to "present additional documentary evidence.”
"Why are they filing these cases if they lack the evidence?” asked Zuño.
He reminded the BIR that the DoJ's role was "neutral," its duty being to merely evaluate the cases and hold a preliminary investigation to determine whether the cases should be dismissed or filed in court if warranted by the evidence.
He said the DoJ cannot be counted on to gather evidence for the BIR.
"We are not engaged in case build-up,” Zuño said.
He said it was not that the RATE cases were weak, merely that they were "not sufficient in documentary evidence."
But he said the DoJ was speeding up the resolution of some of the cases and would file them in court starting next week.
A ranking BIR official said the requirement to file the cases with the DoJ could be done away with as the National Internal Revenue Code empowers the BIR to file tax evasion cases directly with the courts.
Tax evasion cases worth less than P1 million are filed either with municipal, metropolitan or regional trial courts, while those involving at least P1 million are filed with the Court of Tax Appeals.
The BIR official explained that both the DoJ and fiscal authorities were undergoing a learning process in the handling of criminal cases involving tax evasion.
While DoJ lawyers have yet to fully master the handling of relatively complex tax-related cases, the DoF and BIR officials are also undergoing training in building criminal cases, the official said.
Before the RATE program, most tax-related cases pursued by the DoF and the BIR were civil in nature. This was because previously the government was inclined to drop criminal charges when the respondents decided to pay the disputed taxes. With a report from Michelle V. Remo
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