BIR Carolino exposes anomalies at Register of Deeds-Pangasinan

Alleged falsifier Maria Carla Cacapit, in a TV grab, of the Register of Deeds-Pangasinan after her arrest recently inside the RD office in Lingayen

Atty. Elmer Carolino, a top honcho of the BIR in Pangasinan, shows to the media the fake Certificate Authorizing Registration (CAR)  (extreme left) and the authentic CAR. The fake CAR was found in the hand of a taxpayer who said it was facilitated byMs.Cacapit of the Register of Deeds in Pangasinan

ALAMINOS CITY-“The Certificate Authorizing Registration (CAR) is when the seller or transferor of a real property tax (RPT) pays the BIR through an Estate Tax or Capital Gain Tax and Documentary Tax before the RD (Register of Deeds) gives the new land title to the buyer or recipient,” declared to this paper by Assistant Revenue District Officer Atty. Elmer Carolino who is based in this city.

Atty. Carolino, assisted by members of the police Criminal Investigation District Group (CIDG), has arrested Ms. Maria Carla Cacapit, Administrative Aide of the RD in the town of Lingayen, because of the latter possession of a fake CAR after she interceded for a BIR commissioned poseur land seller who paid Ms. Cacapit P280 thousand for a CAR in a multi-million pesos of sale of land in Bani, Pangasinan.

Cacapit was charged with Complex Crime of Estafa with Falsification of Private Document with an imprisonment of up to 22 years according to Carolino.

Atty. Carolino said that he accidentally stumbled on this case when Mrs.  Nelia F. Doria  of Dagupan City  inquired something not related with the CAR  at Revenue District -5 office here .

“I saw her carrying a CAR”

He said that at first glance, the CAR was already dubious based on its texture as compared to the authentic CAR papers issued by the BIR.

Carolino told Doria that she was criminally liable of falsification of public document by possessing a fake CAR.

He said a horrified but seemingly innocent Doria told him how the CAR came to her possession.

“She (Doria) felt bad because she has to pay another P280 thousand plus surcharges of 25 percent and penalties as the allowance to pay the legitimate CAR has prescribed last August 2011”.

He said that when he asked Revenue District-5 chief Quirino Ramos, Revenue Officer Jonalyn Abrantes, Group Supervisor Enriquita M. Gonzalo to verify if they own the specimen of the signature at the CAR “they said somebody faked their signature,” Carolino said.

After that Carolino and the CIDG mapped up how to collar the culprit at the RD office in Lingayen.

“I thought the first entrapment operation was “nasunog (burned)” (Police term of being compromised) after the overzealous ABS/CBN crew parked their marked van in front of the RD office,” Carolino, who was assigned at the feared BIR’s Anti-Fraud Department in Manila before being assigned here as the No.2 man of RD-5, said.

He said Cacapit did not show up on that day to give the bogus CAR.

Cacapit, a mere administrative clerk, nevertheless, contacted the poseur client to get the CAR at 9 am the following day.

“On that day she contacted the disguised seller that instead of 9 Am, he would come to her at noon of that day at her table”.

Carolino said that after the clerk gave the CAR to the seller he and the BIR officials whose signatures were scribbled at the CAR check them immediately inside the RD office.

“They denied it thus we immediately arrested her because of inflagrante delicto (caught in the act) basis”

As a proof of good faith and be spared to be sued by the BIR,  Doria was the one who filed the estafa and falsification of private document against Cacapit instead of the BIR filing a falsification of public document case against the employee of the RD.

After the dramatic apprehension of Cacapit appeared on two local TV stations, many scandalized  sellers have been coming without let-up at the office of Carolino to ask him to check if their CAR are faked, too.

“Many of their CARs are faked”.

He said those anxious seller pledges to heaven that they were not in cahoots with Cacapit.

“The law says that the one who has the possession of a fake public document has the burden of proof to convince the court that he or she is innocent, “the BIR official said.

Carolino said that based on the series of serial numbers and years attached to the allegedly dubious CARs submitted by these people the rackets perpetrated by Cacapit and probably with somebody at the RD have been there for years.

He lamented that the BIR could not check immediately if the CAR possessed by the seller is fake or not because after he or she pays the middleperson like Cacapit, who offered that she has connection at the BIR, the buyer gets his title while the RD keeps the fake CAR.

The BIR does not get a duplicate of it unless it requested it.

He said that every time the BIR asked for a copy of the CAR, RD officials gave the tax officials “ sanitized” documents that could erase doubts on the mind of the latter that the former were into some shenanigans. 

On her TV interview, Cacapit said that she is only an errand girl of somebody at the RD. She explained that somebody higher there asked her to facilitate the illegal transaction she had with Mrs. Doria.

According to a source who requested anonymity, investigators should file a lifestyle check at the Ombudsman to officials at the RD because of their luxuries wealth. He said that multi-million of pesos anomalies have been at that office since time immemorial.

The source said that even the house of Cacapit, that was located near the President’s Hotel in Lingayen, is imposing despite her stature as a mere clerk (By Mortz C. Ortigoza).