No Suit Yet Vs. Calugay, Fake Ciggie Makers – BIR Nat’l

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

QUEZON CITY – “Wala pa pina file na criminal case (no criminal case has been filed),” declared last Tuesday by a national top brass of the Bureau of Internal Revenue here to the query of this writer if he filed a suit at the Regional Trial Court in Lingayen, Pangasinan to those counterfeiters of cigarettes and tax stamps.

BIR Deputy Commissioner for Operation Arnel Guballa explained that the non-filing of the criminal cases against Sual mayoral candidate  Liseldo “Dong” Calugay, five Chinese nationals, John Does, and more than a dozen workers of CL Factory in Barangay Portic, Bugallon, Pangasinan have been pending because he is still waiting for the action of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa of the Bureau of Internal Revenue being interviewed by the author at his office in Quezon City.

Calugay was the target of the Mission Order Guballa signed that ordered the joint task force of the BIR and the NBI to raid it in November last year.

They swoop down on a factory in Bugallon that manufactured fake products of Marlboro, Winston, Marvel, Mighty, Winsboro, Fortune, and Camel.

The bogus factory was expose after a long and delicate surveillance by personnel of Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) who found out the proliferation of fake Marlboro products being peddled in some towns in the province. 
They tipped off the BIR on the locations of a tobacco warehouse in Mangaldan, Pangasinan and the factory in Bugallon.   

The factory disguised as a huge piggery but with state of the art's cigarette machineries churned countless cigarette sticks, boxes, and others where the tobacco products were affixed with spurious brand labels and fake tax stamps when the joint strike team raided it at dusk of November 28, 2018.
Officials there estimated those paraphernalia and fake tobacco brands to be worth two billion pesos.

2019 MANGALDAN TOWN FIESTA AND PINDANG FESTIVAL ACTIVITIES

Champion ang Mangaldan sa Health, Social Welfare Services

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANGALDAN – Sinabi ng alkalde ng first class town na ito na maigting niyang pinatutupad ang health and social welfare programs sa kanyang nasasakupan na isa sa pinakamayaman na bayan dito sa Pangasinan.

“Ang ating Mangaldan Infirmary at Urgent Care Clinic na bukas ng bente kwatro oras, pitong araw sa buong linggo, ay limang taon na rin pong nagbibigay serbisyo sa ating mga kababayan. Kasama sa mga serbisyong naibigay at naipapamahagi ay ang emergency care at pagagamit ng ambulansya,” ani Mayor Bonafe D. Parayno.

Mangaldan Mayor Bonafe D. Parayno hugs an old constituent in one of her sorties in the villages.
The Parayno Administration has countless laudable programs for the elderly in the central Pangasinan town.

Aniya wala ng nagbabawas sa kung saan saang palikuran sa 30 barangays dahil sa programa na Zero Open Defecation ng Department of Health na kung saan ang Municipal Health Office dito ay nagbibigay ng libreng sanitary toilet bowls.

“Sa kasalukuyan, lahat ng 30 barangays ay na declare na zero open defecation as validated by the Department of Health – Center of Health Development 1. Congratulations po sa ating Municipal Health office!”

Talagang champion ang serbisyo ng Parayno Administration dahil sa tatlong taon na sunod sunod na panalo nito sa national government ng Child Friendly Local Governance.

More Money in Cubao than in Northern, Central Luzon

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Majority of the businesses in the Philippines are located in Imperial Metro Manila. Thus the monstrous traffic because people from the provinces jostled and shoved there to get the elusive jobs that haunt the country.

According to Bureau of Internal Revenue Region No. 6 Director Marina de Guzman, a smallest Revenue District Office in BIR Region No. 7, where its main office she once headed is based in Quezon City collected more than the two regional offices of the tax agency in Northern Luzon.

Cubao, Quezon City

“My smallest district there had a goal of a region,” she told this writer.

She referred to the RDO in Cubao, Quezon City that had a goal of P50 billion last year.

BIR Region No. 1, that oversees Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, and Pangasinan,  had a tax target of P17, 646,987,000.00 last year.

This year it has a tax goal of P19.8 billion according to Revenue District Office – 3 Chief Chum dela Torre.

Region No. 2 based in Tuguegarao, Cagayan had a lower tax goal than BIR Region No. 1.

For this writer, the collection of RDO in Cubao could probably surpass even if we juxtaposed BIR Region No. 3 in Central Luzon with the two BIR Regions I mentioned.

De Guzman cited that Pasig, the biggest RDO of BIR Region 7, had a goal of almost P100 billion last year.

Region 7 and its nine RDOs  were tasked by the government to collect P171 billion last year.

If the P171 billion was added with the 20 percent spike as customarily done by the national office based in Quezon City, it could be P205 billion tax target for year 2019.

x x x x

Blame the Filipinos’ selfishness that residents of Urdaneta City and four towns in Pangasinan reap the consequences of their folly after the management of a superhighway paid them a pittance.

Head Revenue Executive Assistant Beverly Milo of the Bureau of Internal Revenue told this writer at her office in Quezon City that scheming owners want the valuation of their land lowered in their tax declaration so they pay less real property tax at their local government unit and capital gain tax  and others at the BIR when they sell their land.

As a consequence, the Private Infra Development Corporation (PIDC), the owner of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), bought their lands through expropriation at  P50 per square meter (PSM) despite the improvements they have on those agricultural land cum residential.

“Basihan iyong tax declaration. Kung tax declaration whether may improvement ka doon o hindi siyempre ang logic diyan Filipino you want the value of the property to be lowered”.

Many of them protested that the price given to them by the PIDC - a subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation - was miniscule.

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 Milo, who was the former Revenue District Office-6 based in Urdaneta City, said that a PSM of an agriculture, residential, and commercial lands vary as based on the zonal valuation of the BIR.

“Maximum pinaka reasonable sa agricultural P50 (PSM), commercial ang area iyan ang nakakasama diyan kasi the area can go as high as P1,000. Residential most probably tumatakbo siya P700 to P800”.

Milo cited that the sellers of lands in Urdaneta and the towns of  Laoac, Binalonan, Pozorrubio and Sison were classified into two.

“Ang nangyari kasi diyan sa TPLEX dalawa iyan. Iyong iba they agreed to sell their properties, considered as voluntary based on the zonal valuation of the BIR, while it is voluntary there is no need for you to go to court,” She stressed.

She said the mistakes of those sellers they did not upgrade the classification of their lands.

“They were not able to upgrade the classification of the lot. Even if your residence is located within that area which is considered a part of that farmland, others it was not classified as residential where TPLEX acquisition came in the value of the property existing at that time is considered as agricultural”.

200 of these landowners blocked one lane of the express way for half day in February, creating monstrous traffic along the Pozzurobio exit because until now the management of TPLEX did not pay their “just compensation”.

She said that if they want the value of their land appraised higher they have to prove to the court their evidences.

But tax experts see these as a futile exercise as the tax declaration that identify the property as agricultural will go against them.


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Power of the Gov't to Buy Your Property

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Piñol, Sinag Boss Debate on Floods of Imported Agri Foods

             This After trading barbs in the media

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol and national multi-industry’s Samahang Agrikultura at Industriya (Sinag) chairperson Rosendo So had traded barbs lately in the national media.

So vented to reporters that with the influx of imported pork, chicken, and the new liberalization of the importation of rice under the new law, Republic Act 11203 or an Act Liberalizing the Importation, Exportation, and Trading of Rice, the lives of Filipino farmers hog and pork raisers and farmers go to the dogs.

 “Ang tawag sa Department of Agriculture hind na Department of Agriculture, Department of Importation. Ang problem itong secretary nawawala, palaging nagtatago ayaw harapin ang ating mga taga hog industry. Siguro guilty sa kanyang ginawa kaya ayaw harapin ang mga taga hog industry,” So cited when he was interviewed by ABS-CBN's television anchor Noli de Castro.

CIVIL - Despite trading barbs at each other in the national media, Department of Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol (center) and multi-industry’s Samahang Industriya at Agrikultura Chairman Rosendo So (left) are still civil when they meet during the first leg of the consultation of the implementing rules and regulation (IRI) of the Republic Act No. 11203 or an Act Liberalizing the Importation, Exportation, and Trading of Rice held last February 26 at the Philippine Carabao Center in Munoz City, Nueva Ecija.  Other person at the photo is D.A Region 3 Director Cris Bautista.

(PHOTO BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA)

That play of words had been quoted by amused national radio and television reporters like Ted Failon of DZMM but refuted by Piñol on the recent interview at DZMM.

Piñol, a former print and radio reporter, answered the raps of Rosendo So:

“Ano ang sinasabi niyang Department of Importation. Bakit wala ba kaming suporta sa mga local na magsasaka. That’s unfair iyang sinasabi niya tago ako ng tago nandito ako ngayon sa Muñoz Nueva Ecija kaharap ko iyong mga rice stakeholders,” he told Failon.

When asked about the over importation of  pork and chicken approved by the D.A that So said will annihilate the local poultry and hog industries, Piñol answered:

“Hindi masasabing over importation. There was a marked increase of the importation of pork and chicken, these are problems we can address if we seat together. You know, discuss the solution rather than label us as Department of Importation”.

The Sinag chair cited the cheap buying prices of palay (unhusked rice) at the expense of the marginalized Filipino farmers because the National Food Authority and the D.A allowed the importation of 1.96 million MT or 39.2 million bags in 2018, 555, 696 MT or 11, 113, 920 in January 2019, and 350,000 MT or 7 million bags in February 2019  outside of the Minimum Access Volume (MAV).

MAV, according to the Tariff Commission, is the amount of imports of an agricultural product allowed to be imported into the country at a customs duty lower thant the out-quota customs duty.

BALON DAGUPAN ATHLETES ALL SET TO DEFEND CROWN IN R1AA 2019

DAGUPAN CITY – The Balon Dagupan athletes are all set to defend their 2018 championship title in the coming Region 1 Athletic Association (R1AA) Meet which will reel off from March 6 to 11 in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.

Before the competition, the Dagupan athletes underwent a month-long preparation of high-intensity training in their respective events.

Dagupan City Sports Commission  Vice Chair Finnela T. Sim said the athletes prepared well to give their best in the coming R1AA Meet as current defending champions.

 Dagupeños warmly greeted the city’s more than 500 athletes and coaches who made history for bringing home the city’s first Region 1 Athletic Association meet championship trophy as they marched along the city’s main thoroughfares during their victory parade on February 22, 2018 (Photo and text from Dagupan City's LGU)

This year, Dagupan City is sending 611 strong delegates to the 2019 R1AA Meet. Of the number, a total of  474  are all seeing action in the Meet.

The city government, through Mayor Belen T. Fernandez’s initiative, again extended its support to the delegation by providing the athletes and coaches their sports equipment and competition allowance.

Last February 22, all athletes received rubber shoes, uniforms, and other sports equipment at Bonuan Boquig Elementary School.

Farmers Lives Worsen This Year After Imported Rice Flood Ph

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 With eleven pesos profit an imported rice retailer can earn because of the new law on the open importation of the staple,  the lives of Filipino palay farmers deteriorate this year  because customers will shun their product, a pundit cited.

The source, who asked for anonymity,  agreed with the pronouncement of  Samahang Industriya at Agrikultura(Sinag)  Chairman Rosendo So that  the averaged P43 per kilo of rice produced by more than 2.3 million Filipino farmers will be gobbled by the flood of imported staple from either Thailand, Vietnam, or India that command an average priced of P32 per kilo only in local market.
The Sinag chair based his figure on the last week of February this year on the price of the Vietnam rice. 

This happened because Republic Act No. 11203  or an Act Liberalizing the Importation, Exportation, and Trading of Rice, Lifting for the Purpose the Quantitative Import Restriction on Rice, and for Other Purposes was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte last February 14 this year.

(Photo Credit: nordis.net)

The statute should have to take effect on March 5 this year but is hampered by the absence of  the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) that will be hammered by the Department of Agriculture and the National Economic Development Authority after they consulted the agricultural stakeholders on February 26 to March 1.

Rosendo So cited last November that the production cost of Philippines produced palay is P40 while the imported cost  only P35.

“Live price now na 5% broken U.S$380 per metric ton o 1000 kilos equals P23 freight, P403 multiplied by U.S $55 divided by 20 multiplied 35 (percent) tariff. P32 pesos may taripa na. Dalhin  niya sa warehouse sabihin mo P3 o P150 sa 50 kilos per bag,” he told this writer November last year.

He explained that the retailer buys the imported rice from the importer for P35 a kilo and sells it at P38 with a profit of P3.
"The price as of February is more lower than that of November based on the average of P32 per kilo in the world market," he told this writer.