NBI, PACC nab 3 BIR ‘extortionists’

Three Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) employees wanted for allegedly extorting money from a restaurant owner were arrested during an entrapment operation by joint operatives of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC).

The suspects who are all assigned at BIR regional investigation division were identified as Arturo Buniol, Gary Atanacio and Eduardo Javier whom NBI Deputy Director Atty. Ferdinand Lavin presented to the media on Monday at the NBI headquarters.

Based on the complaint forwarded by the PACC to the NBI, the three suspects were allegedly demanding money from the owner of a Chinese restaurant.

The NBI said that Buniol, Atanacio and Javier, who were arrested in entrapment in Makati City, allegedly asked for a P75,000 cut in the one-year-old restaurant’s tax liability amounting to P1.2 million.

The said BIR RID report had assessed the restaurant with a tax liability amounting to P1,200,000.

The BIR employees in question were allegedly asking the restaurant to pay them P600,000, or 50% of the supposed P1.2-million tax liability, while also asking to secure an accountant’s services.

Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) commissioner Greco Belgica himself confirmed he received information from an employee of an ‘unnamed’ Chinese restaurant which the three suspects had allegedly placed under their surveillance ‘despite the fact that said restaurant has only been operating for one year.’

In carrying out the entrapment, Belgica personally acted as lady accountant using the name Kath Legaspi and texted the suspects to verify the complaint. He found out that the suspects were indeed demanding P75,00.

The NBI then hatched an entrapment operation last June 21 which led to the arrest of the three.

The three will be charged at the Office of the Ombudsman for violation of RA 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt practices Act RA 6713 otherwise known as Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard for Public Officials and Employees and Article 210 (bribery) of the Revised Penal Code.

“Thru exchange of messages, Comm. Belgica (acting as Kath Legaspi) discovered that the subjects were asking for P75,000 from the P600,000 for restaurant’s alleged tax liability and the balance will be given to the ‘other side,’ which the subjects were referring [to],” the NBI said in a press statement.