A broker of lands in the province asked why I assailed an alleged fixer at the Register of Deeds in Lingayen. “She has been helping a lot of the buyers or sellers of land there.
The 200 thousand pesos one should be paying to the BIR is lowered to 50 thousand pesos because of her connection to the top honchos of the tax office,” she told me in the vernacular.
Holy Casserole and Guacamole, these duped clients should know that the basement prized fire-sale bargain of P50 thousand does not go to the national coffer. She and those clients there should know that the taxes the vendor or vendee pay (they call it Certificate Authorizing Registration which is either composed of Capital Gain Tax, Estate Tax, or Document Tax and Documentary Tax) are fake.
There is no such thing as connection with the BIR by the fixer there. Instead they should be wary about the repercussion in case they are discovered (through their envious neighbors, who learned about their shenanigans, who can tip the tax office, or by other mode of discovery by the BIR).
Christine Cardona, chief, Revenue District Office-4 that oversees Central Pangasinan, told me that the buyer of land must pay 50 percent of the surcharge of the real tax of the land, 25 percent yearly interest, and fine. Two beauteous BIR Examiners there named Malou and Eden (Mag pa merienda na kayo, beauteous hi hi!" -Mortz) added that the buyer who conspired with the fixer at the Register of Deeds can go to jail because of tax fraud. They explained to me a hypothetical example: A P500 thousand tax that should be remitted to the government would be slapped by a 50 percent (P250 thousand surcharge) and 25 percent (P125 thousand or 25 percent from the half-a-million real tax every year), a fine, and a criminal charge of fraud. Tsk, tsk, nakakatakot pala ito!
***
Recently I saw at the news Custom officials like Commissioner Ruffy Biazon and Deputy Commissioner Danny Lim posed with a container van full of smuggled peking ducks from Mainland China. When we were Peking Duck hunting at the Chinese restaurants in Binondo, Manila last month, my son Jigger quipped: “Tama si General Lim nagkaka-wala-an na ang mga Peking Duck dito sa Binondo.
The running price of the succulent and delectable roasted duck there according to waiters runs from P1,200 to P2000 a kilo. Lim, a West Pointer, told me when I dropped at his office in the Bureau of Custom at the Port Area that he and soft-spoken Com. Biazon have waged battle against smugglers like those who tried to sneak the Chinese duck (that can bring the dreaded bird’s flu).
He said their campaign have been bearing results already. Lim said smugglers’ ingenuity did not succeed in evading the prying eyes of his men. He cited the case lately of a container van full of the horns of the endangered rhinoceros that saw a lucrative market in the country and abroad for church statues. “Ang declaration (smugglers) nila ay cassio nuts from Mozambique. So maganda ang information na meron talagang naka-tago doon. Ini-sa isa natin iyong mga sako na iyon. Pag tinutusok mo iyong sa hanggang sa kaloob-looban may matigas doon,” he explained to me in the vernacular.
He said the smuggling of the rhino horn is a multi-million of pesos racket. He said a gram of the horn fetch for U.S $133. “Susmariosep, this is more expensive than a gram of shabu where it fetch for P5000 ($125) a gram,” I told myself.
***
Kinsmen running in tandem in the province are not uncommon.
In Pozzurobio town, Mayor Artemio Q. Chan runs for re-election with his son Kelvin runs for the vice mayoralty post . In Rosales town, outgoing Mayor Ric Revita runs for the vice mayoralty with his wife aspiring for his present post. In Dagupan City, in case either Mayor Benjamin S. Lim or son Brian will not file to run for congress up to the December 21 deadline for substitution mandated by the Comelec, Brian will run for the vice mayoralty while Benjie runs for the No. 1 post in the city.
***
This electoral “epidemic” in Central and Eastern Pangasinan did not spare its geographic neighbor Eastern Pangasinan. Mayor Marcelo Navarro (a retired police general) has filed for re-election with his nephew John Paul Navarro (son of his brother) running for the vice mayoralty.
What spices up the “circus” of family affairs gunning for the top two posts there was when the mayor’s first cousin Marichu Navarro Natividad (a topnotch in her three terms as council member, and the present ABC president) challenged Navarro’s choice of John Paul as the vice mayoralty bet. Marichu’s brother , Benjamin Navarro , is the town administrator of Navarro.
Now Marichu and her supporters are not only calling the mayor bad names but even accused Benjamin as the K-9 dog of the mayor. To beef up her electoral stock, Natividad allied herself with the mayor’s nemesis Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino (Navarro’s estranged classmate and bunk mate at the Philippine Military Academy) to end the reign of Navarro and Benjamin at the town hall.
Funny susmariosep, a family affair gone awry!
(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).
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