MANILA — Three personnel of the Makati Revenue District office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) who figured in an extortion scam were presented to newsmen by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Monday.
BIR Regional Investigation Division (BIR-RID) Special Investigators Arturo D. Buniol, Gary V. Atanacio and Edgardo Y. Javier were arrested last June 21 by NBI agents working with the Presidential Anti- Corruption Commission (PACC).
They were caught red handed in possession of a portion of the PHP600,000 marked money, which they extorted from a restaurant owner, whom the BIR had supposedly assessed for a tax liability of PHP1.2 million.
PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica said the investigators were entrapped in Greenhills in San Juan after the PACC contacted them and pretended to be accountants representing the restaurant’s owners.
NBI officials noted that the “mission order”, which the three investigators used as basis for the investigation on the restaurant which had been operating for only a year, had already expired.
Corruption charges have been filed against the three suspects at the Office of the Ombudsman. Benjamin Pulta/PNA-northboundasia.com