A case of mass swindling was uncovered in Balamban town where individuals in at least 100 transactions had bought land only to find out that fake receipts were issued for their capital gains tax payments.
Some victims identified the municipal assessor Tita Yray and two of her staff as receiving their cash payments of P3,000 to P30,000 intended for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
BIR tax payment deposit slips, which bore the logo of the Land Bank of the Philippines, turned out to be fake.
All three employees were made to take a leave of absence last June 15 by Balamban Mayor Ace Stefan Binghay who started an inquiry.
But yesterday, under pressure from quarters who expressed doubt there would be a whitewash, Binghay terminated the probe and referred it to the Civil Service Commission regional office in Cebu City.
“I started an investigation but many people keep coming here. Some blame me for the mess. It’s better that an independent body handle this, not here, or we may be accused of bias,” Mayor Binghay told Cebu Daily News.
The anomaly came out in the open the other week when several lot buyers flocked to the Balamban town hall demanding answers.
One by one, individuals who had bought parcels of land discovered that their real estate purchases were in doubt because payments for capital gains tax to the BIR were covered by fake papers.
The complainants identified Yray, chief of the municipal assessor’s office, and two staffers Sharee Melgar and Lucelle Agua as handling the transactions.
The mayor said victims should not have made “special arrangements” with these employees to remit the payments to the bank.
He said he has been reminded municipal employees not to engage in “fixing”.
A “partial” review by the Balamban municipal government showed that at least 100 transactions were made involving payments totalling at least P3 million.
Napoleon Moralde, the HR officer who was newly appointed to replace the municipal assessor, said they found irregularities in single transactions involving payments of P3,000 to P30,000. There were about 300 transactions for similar real property taxes since 2009, said Moralde and more than 100 were found with irregularities so far.
He showed CDN 4-inch thick documents attached with fake receipts submitted by complainants.
Mayor Binghay, in a separate interview, said he terminated his probe because he received text messages from parties saying the local investigation had no credibility.
He said bringing the matter to the CSC would dispel doubts that was trying to protect the three employees.
Does Binghay have close ties with the three employees, CDN asked.
“Of course, that’s part of our work,” he replied.
“In our work, we’re like family the same way in your office, you are probably like family there,” he said.
“But that (anomaly) I cannot tolerate… but of course we have to go through a process, dili man ta kadiretso-diretso.”
Mayor Binghay said that the victims could have avoided such incident if they did not seek these “special arrangements” in processing their documents.
He said transactions were done outside the functions of the municipality and the money did not go to the town’s coffers.
“Dapat gani ang at fault sad ana kay katong mga tao because you are not suppose to pay these employees to process your documents,” Binghay added.
He said he often tells municipal employes not to engage in “fixing” activities.
Mayor Binghay said there are a lot of land purchases and capital gains tax transactions going on in Balamban because it is a booming town.
“I don’t know the exact amount involved but I was told it reaches in the millions of pesos,” he said.
He said he would act swiftly if the victims filed a a written complaint instead of just complainting verbally.
Yesterday, the mayor received two complaint letters.
He directed Moralde, the HR officer, to send an “endorsement letter” to the CSC to let them start a formal investigation of the complaints.
Moralde said an initial review of 300 CARs, showed about 100 fake receipts involving P3 to P4 million.
Transactions were for payments of P3,000 to P30,000.
Some bulk claims were processed by parties who said they were duped for P100,000 to P200,000.–
Several victims are planning to gather evidence and file a complaint with the Visayas Ombudsman.
“It’s not right that those involved return to their work after 15 days as if nothing has happened. After we’ve gone into debt and sold our pigs for this transaction, is that it?” asked one angry victim in Cebuano.
‘We didn’t know we were fooled’
Cebu Daily News talked to a young Balamban couple with two children who had invested hard-earned money in a piece of land.
The husband, a nurse worked in Saudi Arabia. They finished paying by installment for the land and paid at least P18,000 for the BIR capital gains tax only to find a year after that government receipts issued to them were fake.
Now, the couple is unsure whether they still could recover the P18,000 they gave to the assessor’s office.
“Who would think that someone in the assessor’s office who looks decent would fool us?” said the wife, who asked that her name be withheld for security reasons.
She said the payment was made to Sharee Melgar, a staffer of the municipal assessor.
Last year, Melgar allegedly went to the couple’s house to facilitate the processing of a Certificate Authorizing Registration (CAR), the document needed for a buyer to transfer a newly purchased property to his or her name.
In order to get the CAR, the wife paid P18,000 for capital gains taxes required by the BIR as part of processing the certificate.
The couple let Melgar process the documents for a fee to avoid having to travel to Cebu City, a two-hour bus ride from the town, and deposit payment through the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), which is accredited to receive government payments.
About three months later, they said Melgar came back with complete documents including receipts.
Other victims, including some Balamban municipal employes, said they had made payments to Yray, Melgar or Agua, in the assessor’s office.
Upon payment of the fees, some were given temporary handwritten receipts.
They were shown violet-colored BIR Tax Deposit slips with the bank logo of LBP.
“Ang uban gani nga kauban namo nga nabiktima nibaligya sa ilahang baboy ug baka para lang ibayad sa buwis unya karon gibinuangan ra diay mi,” said one woman, whse husband also an overseas seaman.
CDN tried to interview the accused employees but both Melgar and Agua did not report for work at the municipal hall yesterday.
Agua was reassigned to the DILG field office in Balamban. The appointment of Melgar, a job order employee, has not been renewed.
Yray, who was reassigned to the municipal council secretariat, dodged an interview.
While co-workers said she was absent, other employees at the town hall said that she hurriedly left on a motorcycle upon seeing the CDN news crew enter the town hall compound.