BIR assures Senate of AMLC agreement revision

Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Monday assured the Senate that its memorandum of agreement with the Anti-Money Laundering Council was in consonance with the proposal of a senator to revise its contents to further clarify the agreement.

During the meeting of the Senate committees on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies (Sub-Committee on Anti-Money Laundering Law Amendments) joint with congressional oversight committee on the Anti-Money Laundering Law, Senator Panfilo Lacson asked that the MOA signed by the BIR and the AMLC in March 2011 be revised.

In an interview, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, meanwhile, said that they wanted to see the contents of the MOA to ensure that it does not violate “the right of people to be secure in their persons, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall be inviolable.”

Article 3, Section 2 of the Bill or Rights states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures of whatever nature and for any purpose shall be inviolable, and no search warrant or warrant of arrest shall issue except upon probable cause to be determined personally by the judge after examination under oath or affirmation of the complainant and the witnesses he may produce, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.”

In a chance interview after the committee hearing, BIR chief Kim Jacinto-Henares said they agreed to the proposal to revise the MOA but clarified that the agreement was only created to allow the BIR to get certified true copies of documents pertaining to the tax evasion charges filed against former AFP Comptrollers Jacinto Ligot and Carlos Garcia.

Henares said that the BIR wanted to get copies of public documents but the regional trial court (RTC) did not hand it over to them for undisclosed reasons.

“Nakasampa na ‘yan sa RTC, andun na yung dokumento, ayaw nilang ibigay sa amin so ang recourse pumunta kami sa AMLC. E pagpunta namin, ire-release naman nila kasi nasa publiko na yung dokumento. Kailangan lang namin mag-execute ng MOA. Yun lang,” Henares told reporters.

(The case has already been filed to the RTC, the documents are there, they don’t want to give those documents to us so our recourse is to go to AMLC. When we went there, they agreed to release it since these are public documents but we just have to execute the MOA. That’s all.)

In the AMLC-BIR MOA, it was stated that the objective and scope of the cooperation was for both parties to “promote and encourage cooperation to effectively prevent, control, detect and investigate tax evasion.” The AMLC and the BIR shall also “cooperate in the areas of information exchange and capacity building to enhance the capability of both parties in addressing money laundering and tax evasion concerns.”

Requests for assistance by either party shall be made in request form, addressed to the Executive Director of the AMLAC Secretariat or the Commissioner of Internal Revenue or other duly authorized executive.

The MOA also restricts the use of the shared information to that stated in the request of either party, and it is prohibited to be released to other parties or agencies. The MOA also states that the AMLC and BIR “will not sue or permit the use of such information or document as evidence in any legal or judicial proceedings” and that these will be kept in strict confidentiality.