It’s now up to Balamban Mayor Ace Binghay whether to release P79,000 in terminal pay to a former municipal assessor implicated in the town’s land tax scam, which victimized over 100 property owners.
The Balamban municipal council on Tuesday approved funds for the terminal benefits of Tita Yray, who filed for resignation after the scam was discovered in June.
She was identified with two clerks as the ones who received payments for capital gains tax to be remitted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and allegedly issued falsified receipts.
Yray had worked in the municipal government for 19 years.
No charges have been filed against her and the two other staffers, who have also left the Balamban government although the Ombudsman-Visayas office and BIR Mandaue district office said they are conducting fact-finding inquiries into the anomaly.
The Balamban town council relied on a written opinion from the Civil Service Commission (CSC) that said there were no obstacles for the release of terminal leave benefits to Yray even if she is found guilty of the accusations against her.
The Commission is conducting its own investigation of the scam that the mayor’s office earlier estimated had victimized over 100 people who transacted tax payments of P3,000 to P30,000 since 2009.
The unremitted tax payments was initially estimated as P4 million but the actual scope of the scam has yet to be determined.
The government agencies have received affidavit-complaints from some land owners and buyers against Yray, Lucelle Agua and Sharee Melgar.
Agua is on indefinite leave while Melgar, a job-order employee, was let go after the mayor did not renew her contract.
Two Balamban councilors, John Ismael “Jimbo” Borgonia and his aunt Councilor Gretel Borgonia, abstained from approval of the appropriation ordinance for Yray’s terminal leave pay.
Councilor Dave Karamihan, the town’s first councilor and a cousin of Mayor Binghay, was absent during the Tuesday session presided by Vice Mayor Rose Binghay, the mayor’s mother.
Borgonia said he and his aunt wanted the Ombudsman’s opinion on the case before voting.
He said he could not fault his fellow councilors for voting in favor of the release of funds because the CSC has given a clearance.
“There was no court order, no order from Ombudsman. There is no forfeiture of the terminal leave benefits from the Ombudsman so it can be released,” said Borgonia, a lawyer.
Maria Jennet Viloria, one of the victims of the land scam, said she talked with Ombudsman-Visayas official Virginia Santiago in Cebu City a few weeks ago.
She said Santiago told her that the benefits of the three accused must be put on hold.
Viloria said she and other victims will wait for the Ombudsman’s decision before paying anew their taxes.
She said they are hoping that they would be granted a waiver of penalties by the BIR.
Councilor Borgonia said it was up to Mayor Binghay to decide whether to release the benefits.
In the meantime, the BIR regional office said it will investigate the land tax anomaly.
Zennin Tabanao, chief of the special investigation division of BIR-7, said the parallel investigation will strengthen other efforts to look into the scam.
In a forum yesterday, he said they will get the affidavits of Yray, Melgar and Agua on the case.
The BIR Mandaue revenue district office, which is in charge of Balamban, already started receiving complaint affidavits from victims.
An initial check ordered by Mayor Binghay showed irregularities in at least 100 out of 300 land sale transactions since 2009, involving payments from P3,000 to P30,000.
Victims trooped to the municipal hall in in mid-June after finding out that the filled-up deposit slips for BIR payments through the Land Bank of the Philippines, which they were given as proof of payment, were misleading.
Transaction codes on the slips were invalid, indicating the records were fake.
“If the falsification is true, then we will collect their taxes again and they are required to pay,” Tabanao said.
He said the taxpayers should have gone to the district office in Mandaue to present their papers.
The Balamban town council told property owners in a public hearing a similar message, that they shouldn’t have resorted to “fixers” to pay their tax obligations. /With Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya