Parañaque mayor, 12 others sued over disadvantageous tax payment

(Updated, 6:01 p.m.) Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez and 12 officials were sued before the Office of the Ombudsman for plunder and graft for allegedly granting a disadvantageous tax settlement to the Wenceslao group, where the board chairman is the mayor’s godfather.

In his complaint affidavit, a former barangay councilor Jonathan Bernardo accused Olivarez of causing undue injury to government when it entered into a tax settlement with the Wenceslao group in 2013 granting a P453,374,700.68 tax discount to settle all tax disputes.

Bernardo asked the Ombudsman to suspend, investigate and eventually prosecute Olivarez, 10 councilors and two city officials for violation of Sections 3(e), 3(g) and 3(i) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in relation to Section 4(b) of the graft law and Section 2 of the Plunder Law.

The complaint tagged the Wenceslao group – D.M. Wenceslao & Associates, Inc., Wendel Holdings Co., Inc., Fabricom Manufacturing Corp. and Aseana Holdings, Inc.

Also included in the complaint are councilors Rufino M. Allanigue, John Ryan G. Yllana, Merlies Antipuesto, Vincent Kenneth M. Favis, Florencia N. Amurao, Brillante V. Inciong, Roselle Nava-Tan, Joan Villafuerte, Maritess B. De Asis, and Jacqueline Bustamante-Mendoza, City Legal Officer Rommel A. Frias, and officer-in-charge City Treasurer Anthony L. Pulmano.

Bernardo alleged the Wenceslao group was granted a  62.68 percent discount in 2013 when the D.M. Wenceslao and Associates Inc., Wendel Holdings Co., and the Asean Holdings Inc. paid a total of P269,892,166.81 real property taxes when the companies should have paid P723,266,867.49.

“Suffice it to state that the above discounts constitute as sufficient evidence that the current agreement approved by the SP is manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the City of Paranaque. To think that the discount granted was even more than the fifty percent (50%) indicated in the SP approved compromise agreement – a whopping 62.68% discount!” the complaint read.

Bernardo said Olivarez gave unwarranted benefit to Wenceslao group because the board chairman Delfin Wenceslao is Olivarez’s godfather during his silver anniversary.

“Given the above computation, it is evident that undue benefit and further advantage to the private respondent WG was given, even beyond what was agreed in the questionable MOA, for which it could not be discounted from the fact that the chairman/owner of WG is a benefactor/supporter, being the godparent of the respondent City Mayor Hon. Edwin L. Olivarez,” the complaint read.

The Wenceslao group was thus given a disadvantageous tax discount of P453,374,700.68, Bernardo said.

“It bears to emphasize that this undue benefits and advantages are detrimental to the constituents of Paranaque City, which… has lost a total of P 453,374,700.68 in the form of discount given to the private respondent Wenceslao Group. A perusal of the draft compromise agreement approved by the members of the SP, will reveal all of this undue advantages and further exacerbated by the actual payment and discount given,” the complaint read.

The tax settlement stemmed from a real property tax dispute between the Parañaque city government and the Wenceslao group since 1995.

Sought for comment to the charges, Olivarez said he is leaving the complaint to the wisdom of the Office of the Ombudsman.

He added that the compromise agreement was above board because it was given the green light by the Supreme Court.

“We submit to the wisdom of the Honorable Ombudsman on this case. But we just would like to inform the public that no less than the Honorable Supreme Court approved the compromise agreement by the parties,” Olivarez said in a text message to Inquirer.