Bullets riddled BIR’s boss car blamed on steep tax collection

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

ALAMINOS CITY – Was the bullets riddled car of the chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Western Pangasinan happened because of excessive taxes being billed by that office to taxpayers?

An agent of a bookkeeping company, who asked anonymity, commented that the countless bullet holes that peppered the body and side glass window of the government issued red Innova multi-purpose vehicle to Revenue District Office -5 Chief Thelma D. Mangio last May was blamed on the tax agency officials’ excessive exaction of taxes.

BIR billed taxpayers with taxes like income, capital gain, estate, donor, and others.

The car, according to BIR insiders, was shot by unidentified gunman sometime in May this year while it was parked at the periphery of the BIR office in this city. No one was inside the car during the incident.

BULLET HOLES. The bullets riddled Toyota Innova car of Revenue District Office Chief Thelma D. Mangio of the Bureau of Internal Revenue based in Alaminos City. The car, according to BIR insiders, was shot by unidentified gunman sometime in May this year while it was parked at the periphery of the BIR office in this city. Bullet holes are covered by a brown packaging tape in this photo. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

 “Sinisingil ng BIR officials doon iyong old taxes sa bago at mataas na zonal valuation na dapat e implement lang noong May 31,” she said.

The three Revenue District Offices in Pangasinan have spiked the zonal valuation after it underwent a public hearing last November last year.

Zonal valuation is used by the BIR officials to compute the proper taxes taxpayers should be paying the government in transactions like sale and transfer of real properties.

Assistant RDO-Chief Charmaine dela Torre said the new zonal valuation was implemented last May 31.

CPA-Lawyer Maria Isabel Utit, the Chief of RD0-6 who oversees Eastern Pangasinan, said the average increase of the new zonal valuation was forty percent compared to the average taxes being collected in the old valuation.

The Department of Finance approved the new zonal valuation last April after the BIR in Pangasinan conducted a hearing to stakeholders late last year.

RDO-4 Chief Merlyn Vicente, who oversees Central Pangasinan, said the spike in valuation was done because the government needs more monies to fund its workers and projects.

Early June this year Alberto Enriquez, 49, the BIR chief of the Revenue District 28 tax assessment section in Quezon City was shot to death by a gunman who was a back rider of a motorcycle after he saw Enriquez disembarked from his car parked near the BIR office there.

Last November 2016, BIR Region 8 director Jonas Amora, who was a former Assistant Regional Director in Region-1, was shot dead by motorcycle riders in tandem at the corner of Topside Road and Katipunan Avenue in the same city.

In the last four years two BIR officials in Pangasinan have already been murdered.