Legal aid sought for victims; suspect gets PAO lawyer ahead
A former Balamban clerk implicated in the town’s land tax scam is tapping the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) for her defense.
The problem is that dozens of scam victims who want to avail of similar free government legal service can no longer turn to PAO, said Balamban Councilor John Ismael Borgonia.
“My advise to the victims was to go to the Public Attorney’s Office but they were already denied because Sharee Melgar was there first. She is qualified for PAO assistance because she has an income less than P12,000,” Borgonia told Cebu Daily News.
Because of this, Borgonia said he is seeking the help of the Cebu City and province chapters of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to provide legal aid to more than 100 victims of the multimillion-peso scam.
Melgar’s contract as a job-order employee in the municipal assessor’s office was not renewed by Mayor Ace Binghay last June 30 after the fraud was discovered.
Borgonia said he is drafting a resolution requesting the IBP’s assistance for townfolk who fell prey to the scam.
In a separate resolution, Borgonia will ask the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to waive penalties incurred by the victims due to their nonpayment of capital gains taxes as a result of the scam.
Aggrieved residents said they were duped by the municipal assessor Tita Yray, Lucille Agua and Melgar, who facilitated their payments and led them to believe the money was remitted to the BIR.
Yray, Melgar and Agua are no longer reporting for work. Yray resigned while Agua filed an indefinite leave of absence.
Many lot owners and buyers found out in mid-June that their BIR Tax Deposit slips from the Land Bank were fake. Their tax payments ranged from P3,000 to P30,000 per transaction.
Last July 12, at least 150 people aired their grievances in a public hearing in the Balamabn municipal council.
Borgonia, who heads the committee on laws, said he will file a resolution asking the BIR to provide a satellite office in Balamban town and accredit local private banks to receive the payments so that residents would no longer turn to fixers to process their tax documents.
Private banks in Balamban include Maximo and Citysavings Bank. Land Bank doesn’t have a branch in Balamban, west Cebu.
The Provincial Board also asked a copy of his committee report to guide the meeting the PB will have with BIR officials this week. Reporter Dale G. Israel
