PCSO board faces plunder anew over unremitted P2.9B tax

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Board led by General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II faces another plunder complaint before the Ombudsman over the non-remittance of documentary stamp tax on small town lottery (STL) operations.

Diego Magpantay and Carlo Batalia of the Citizens Crime Watch on Thursday filed the plunder and graft complaint against Rojas and other board directors for allowing the STL operators not to remit the 10 percent documentary stamp tax from 2006 to July 2015.

The STL operators failed to remit to the government a total amount of P2.9 billion in documentary stamp tax, according to the complaint.

In a statement, Rojas called the complaint as “malicious” and “baseless” meant to “malign the present board for the personal agenda and self-serving interest of certain individuals.”

Rojas said the PCSO board has introduced reforms since 2010 to improve its charity services and gaming activities, which earned the office a recommendation for an ISO-certification.

“We have implemented long-lasting improvements in procedures and policies and judicious expenditures, among others. PCSO is a small but successful story of our performance and good governance,” Rojas said.

“It is a pity that there are those who, in their desperation to find evidence that good governance does not work, will go to the extent of destroying agencies where good governance worked and works,” he added.

In the complaint, the complainants cited a September 2012 resolution issued by the board excluding the payment of documentary stamp tax in the implementing rules and regulations of the STL operations.

The said tax was removed from the STL implementing rules even though other authorized PCSO games were required to pay the documentary tax.

A November 2015 memorandum addressed to newly installed PCSO chair Erineo “Ayong” Maliksi showed that the 2005 and 2010 implementing rules and regulations provide no provision on the payment of a 10 percent documentary stamp tax.

The same memo also showed that the STL remittance to the PCSO from 2006 to 2014 did not include the documentary tax.

Meanwhile, the 2014 revised implementing rules and regulations provided for the documentary stamp tax from the gross sales of the STL games effective only on Jan. 2015.

The complaint likewise cited the House of Representatives investigation into the PCSO anomaly that the gross revenues from the STL operations from 2006 to July 2015 amounted to P29.134 billion while the unremitted documentary taxes totaled P2.9 billion.

The same House investigation also showed procedural lapses in the STL operations according to a report by the National Bureau of Investigation.

READ: NBI bares procedural lapses in small-town lottery operations

The complaint cited a Philippine Daily Inquirer report saying that Rojas admitted that the STL operators had not been remitting the said tax.

Rojas in the report said the PCSO board would rectify the non-remittance of the documentary stamp tax.

READ: PCSO: STL operators owe P2.9B in taxes

According to Section 190 of the National Internal Revenue Code, a documentary stamp tax of 10 centavos should be collected on each jai-alai, horse race ticket, lotto, and any other authorized numbers game.

The complainants want Rojas, board directors Francisco Manuel Joaquin III, Mabel Mamba and Betty Nantes charged of plunder and graft for accumulating ill-gotten wealth, as well as for giving undue preference to the STL operators and causing injury to government.

“Considering that this amount has not been paid and remains to be collectible and due, the Government stands to be prejudiced to the tune of P2.9 billion, thereby giving unwarranted benefits to all existing STL operators,” the complaint said.

“In view of the staggering amount which the government has lost during the operation of the STL, to wit, the unpaid P2.9 billion in uncollected documentary stamp tax… we hereby charge the following … of the crime of plunder… From the newspaper publications and documentary evidence… we came to the conclusion that with the continued operation of the STL, the crime of plunder is being committed,” the complaint added.

The complainants also want charged Remelizo Gabuyo, Assistant General Manager for the Branch Operations Sector, as well as all the board directors of the STL operators – CTG Prime Ventures Inc. (in Nueva Ecija), Ramloid Gaming Corp. (in Laguna), Batangas Enhanced Technology Systems (in Batangas), Diamond Gaming and Research Center (in Bulacan), Piroutte Corp. (in Quezon), Golden Matrix Gaming and Amusement Center (in Zambales).

“The conscious and deliberate non-remittance of the documentary stamp tax to the tune of the P2.9 billion is considered an act constituting an illegal or fraudulent disposition of asset belonging to the national government and misuse of public funds,” the complaint said.

The complainants earlier filed a plunder complaint against the PCSO board for defrauding government at least P50 billion in undeclared sales from the STL because of the illegal use of papelitos.

READ: PCSO execs face plunder raps over anomalous STL operations 

Earlier, the Inquirer quoted PCSO Chair Erineo “Ayong” Maliksi as saying that he had asked the agency to investigate STL operations following reports that some STL operators were using their licenses to conduct jueteng operations and not declaring actual sales to the PCSO.

STL outlets have been suspected of being a front for illegal gambling. Ironically, the PCSO started an improved STL in 2006 to stamp out “jueteng,” an illegal numbers racket. Both involved betting on two-number combinations.

Meanwhile, Maliksi had also been sued before the Ombudsman for allegedly using his position to give charity funds to his driver. He has denied the allegation.

READ: PCSO chair Maliksi faces graft raps for using post to release P2M