Sandiganbayan upholds plunder
case vs DOF exec
THE Sandiganbayan First Division has affirmed the validity of the plunder charge filed by the Office of the Ombudsman against former Finance Undersecretary Antonio P. Belicena and seven others over their allegedly fraudulent issuance of P73.76 million worth of tax credit certificates (TCCs) to Filstar Textile Industrial Corporation 14 years ago.
In resolution promulgated last January 26, the graft court denied for lack of merit Belicena’s motion to quash the information against him. "The subject information cannot be quashed on the ground that it failed to charge an offense for the reason that all the elements of the crime charged were sufficiently alleged therein," the Sandiganbayan declared.
Belicena was charged as the former executive director/administrator of the One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center (Center), the agency that issued the questioned TCCs.
Also charged were Center deputy director Uldarico P. Andutan Jr., reviewer Asuncion M. Magdaet, tax specialist I Rowena P. Malonzo and private defendants Faustino T. Chingkoe and Gloria Chan Chingkoe, Filstar owners; corporate secretary Grace Chingkoe and representative Catalina Aranas Bautista.
The plunder case was based on 28 TCCs with an aggregate value of P73,762,618 that Filstar used to pay its tax and duties obligations or were transferred to oil companies Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell as payment for fuel.
Filstar, incorporated in 1989, is a manufacturer and importer-exporter of yarns, threads, laces and other fabrics. Faustino Chingkoe’s own brother, Felix, is the prosecution’s principal witness in the case. Felix blew the whistle on the allegedly fraudulent tax credit claims made by several companies under the family-owned DKC Group. – Peter J. G. Tabingo