Gung-ho Tax Execs Vs Quarry Opr with Hired Guns

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I rubbed elbows recently with bigwigs from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) that run eastern Pangasinan whose office is in Urdaneta City and those in central Pangasinan whose office is in Calasiao, Pangasinan.

Those in the eastern part told me that many contractors and their dump-trucks have been shunning Pangasinan in their quarry operations because of the new taxes imposed by the provincial government. They instead do their sand and gravel operations in Rosario, La Union. Rosario and Sison, Pangasinan share a boundary.

“Hanggang sawa ang pagku-quarry nila sa ilog ng Rosario pagnakabayad na sila ng P1,000  lang doon,” a tax executive quipped.

His companion told me if that would be the case, they would put their personnel in a checkpoint at the highway of Sison and flag and impound those dump trucks loaded with sand and gravel.

“Alam mo ba na hindi na kailangan ng BIR ng warrant sa korte, we can just seize the properties of the errant taxpayers and arrest them whom we think don’t pay their excise taxes to us,” she told me about Section 15 of the Internal Revenue Code.

The law says: The Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioners, the Revenue Regional Directors, the Revenue District Officers and other internal revenue officers shall have authority to make arrests and seizures for the violation of any penal law, rule or regulation administered by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Any person so arrested shall be forthwith brought before a court, there to be dealt with according to law.

When I told them if they need a cop or cops to implement their plan, they answered in the negative.

“Those people are reasonable after we explained to them why we seized their properties,” an answer I got.

How about if they arrest em’ would they still be reasonable? That I forgot to ask, hahaha!

When I narrated the aggressive attitude of those bigwigs in eastern Pangasinan to the brass in central Pangasinan, he cautions them to practice prudence.

He said those errant quarry operators are wealthy people whose business runs into multi-million pesos money churning machine.

“Papahintuin mo ang ganoon ka laking negosyo, delikado ka!”

 He told me that his counterpart in eastern Pangasinan should be wary of killer riding in tandem on a motorcycle at the behest of the businessmen they offended.

“Ano ang halaga ng certificate of appreciation sa pag impound ng mga trucks at pag penalize nitong mga quarry operators kung mamatay ka naman?” he posed to me.

After evaluating the positions of the two tax officials on the knaves and scoundrels I mentioned, I just quipped to myself: A gung-ho and a vacillating taxmen versus their query -- the tax evading quarrymen.

Query and quarry? Damn, they rhyme!

***

As a seasoned Tax Code reading sanamagan reporter that covered the BIR, I know those bigwigs (whose loved one became collateral victim) were ambushed by hired guns because of their zealousness to implement their mandate from the government.

My friend retired BIR Assistant Regional Director Ernesto De Vota was driving his Toyota Corolla (ETJ-333) before 6 P.m. of January 24, 2008 when an unidentified armed man blocked his path and fired at him in Valenzuela City. The then district revenue officer of Valenzuela sustained minor wounds in the shoulder and hand.

The down-to-earth Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa - whom I interviewed at the main BIR office in Quezon City – because of his ardor to implement his brainchild’s Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) a malefactor threatened by the RATE hired someone who shot to death his wife Evelyn in June 24, 2006 while attending a prayer meeting at Barangay Sto. Cristo, Quezon City. A pastor who attempted to shield Evelyn from the gunman was also killed in the incident.

Guballa was then the national chief of the feared National Investigation Division (NID) when the gruesome treacherous incident ensued. We became friend when he became the regional director of the BIR in Region-1. De Vota was his assistant director then.

BIR Revenue Region 8-Makati City Director Jonas Amora was shot to death by still unidentified assailants riding in tandem on a motorcycle in November 21, 2016. His driver Angelito Pineda was wounded.

And I am not yet citing those Chief of Collectors and Examiners being peppered to death by the bullets of assassins here and outside of the province.