The bullet-riddled car of BIR Makati Office director Jonas Amora in Quezon City (PHOTO BY JODEE AGONCILLO/ INQUIRER)
Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III is urging government “to put the fear of the law back” into the hearts of criminals as he sought a thorough investigation into the recent killings of two senior government officials in less than a week.
“The killing of government officials is never done lightly. When two of them, both from revenue collection agencies, are killed in such a short time, there must be something very sinister involved,” Pimentel said in a statement Monday night.
He was referring to Jonas Amora, director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in Makati City, who was gunned down in an early morning ambush in Quezon City this Monday, and the killing of Customs Deputy Commissioner Arturo “Art” Lachica while driving along España Boulevard last November 17.
READ: Top BIR-Makati exec shot dead in QC ambush
READ: Customs deputy commissioner Lachica killed in Manila ambush
Pimentel suspects that the twin killings might have something to do with corruption within their respective agencies, noting that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BoC) are two of the country’s top revenue collection agencies.
The BoC, he said, had a “very bad” rating with a net satisfaction rating of -72 based on the 2016 Social Weather Stations Survey of Enterprises on Corruption while the BIR received a “poor” rating with a net satisfaction rating of -27.
“We should not discount the possibility that they were killed due to President (Rodrigo) Duterte’s ongoing campaign against corruption. If they were silenced by scalawags, we must redouble our efforts to catch the killers and redress the injustice against the families of the victims and against the Filipino people,” Pimentel said.
“As a lawyer and a public servant, I am appalled at how little the law matters to these criminals. The government must put the fear of the law back into their hearts through a thorough investigation that will not spare any ‘untouchables,’” he further said.