Quezon politico is Arroyo's top bet for BIR chief - sources

Quezon province Rep. Danilo Suarez, a loyal ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and a tax reform advocate with business interests in over two dozen companies, is the top contender for the post of Internal Revenue commissioner, senior official sources told GMANews.TV Thursday night. Sought for comment in separate interviews with two GMANews.TV editors, Suarez sent mixed signals, however. In the first interview, he did not confirm or deny the report. Yet he disclosed that weeks ago, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves had asked him “if I want to test the laws that I had pushed because I made a lot of good laws." “GMA and I will be meeting one of these days to talk about my tax proposals," added Suarez, a major author of the recently enacted attrition law, a one-time tax amnesty law, and amendments to the Reformed Value Added Tax Law. In a second interview with another GMANews.TV editor, Suarez said he knew nothing about his reported impending selection as BIR chief. “I’m not aware of it. This is the first time I’m hearing this," he said. What’s keeping him busy these days, Suarez added, is the bid for speakership of Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia, a fellow member in the KAMPI party of President Arroyo. Loyalty unsure? It is not clear where Suarez’s loyalty lies in the speakership contest between Garcia and Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia. Suarez is known to Congress reporters as one of the so-called “Magnificent 7" group of congressmen who are known to be avid and favored followers of De Venecia. Before he jumped ship to the President’s KAMPI party for the May 2007 elections, Suarez was a member of the Liberal party wing led by former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, whom Arroyo appointed this week as Environment secretary. Suarez insists he remains an LP member although the Supreme Court had ruled that Atienza’s rival wing led by Senate President Franklin Drilon had rightful claim to the LP party name. In some political circles, Suarez is known as “the liaison" officer of De Venecia to the rival LP factions. Next week, Suarez starts his fifth three-year term as congressman for the third district of Quezon province. He served his first three terms from 1992 to 2001. From 2001 to 2004, it was his wife Aleta who ran and replaced him as representative for the same district. Suarez resumed his tenure in Congress in 2004, and is now serving his fifth term. Assets, liabilities Born Danilo Etorma Suarez in Lucena, City, Quezon province, in 1942, Suarez, now 64, is a member of at least eight expensive sports and country clubs – Manila Yacht Club, Makati Sports Club, Puerto Azul Beach & Country Club, Manila Polo Club, Metropolitan Equestrian & Country Club, Baguio Country Club, Matabungkay Beach Club and Calatagan Golf Club. As chairman of the powerful oversight committee in the 13th Congress, Suarez presided over most of the investigations into sundry issues that the House conducted from 2004 to 2007. In his last publicly available statement of asset and liabilities filed in 2004, Suarez declared that he has total assets of P74.38 million, total liabilities of P21.27 million, or a net worth of P53.1 million. Suarez listed his assets (2004) as the following: P7.7 million cash on hand or in the bank, P14 million in jewelry acquired from 1969, eight luxury and four-wheel drive vehicles altogether valued at P16 million, and just a million pesos worth of shares of stocks in various companies. His other listed assets were appliances (P2.37 million), furnitures and fixtures (P3.5 million) and books (P790,000). Suarez declared his liabilities in the same year as the following: P20.3 million loan with Security Bank; P431,360.42 payables to "credit cards - Citibank Mastercard; Citibank Visa; Diners Club;" P369,756.35 in club memberships (Baguio Country Club; Makati Sports Club; Manila Polo Club; Puerto Azul; Tower Club; Manila Golf & Country Club) and P152,752.16 in "dues" payable to Twin Tower Condominium. He admitted being a stockholder from 1974 to 2002 of 10 various companies, including Lucban Farms, La Rey, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Pilipino Telephone Corp., and several country and sports clubs. Undeclared holdings However, Suarez did not declare in his 2004 SAL interests in 18 other companies, even as his resume, previous SALs and wife Aleta had acknowledged the same in SALs she filed as congresswoman from 2001 to 2004. These “undeclared" business interests of Suarez, according to the i-site of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, included five companies in which Suarez is named as president and chairperson – Europhil Finance House Inc., Inter-Technical Pacific Philippines Inc., Material Resources & Marketing Inc., San Isidro Plantation Inc., and Suarez Group of Companies. Mrs Aleta Suarez, in her 2001 SAL, had declared that Mr Suarez is a stockholder in five other companies – Aero Maritime Equipment Corp., Centurion Construction & Marketing Corp., Jedelco Inc., Suarez Agro-Industrial and Development Corp., and Trimex Mercantile Inc. Suarez finished his primary and secondary schooling in Quezon, and took up a Radio Technology course at the Feati University where he supposedly graduated in 1962. For years, Suarez made a reputation as a contractor of military radar and other supplies. He was once the subject of a complaint by an Air Transport officer about an airport facility deal that Suarez had sought to cancel, allegedly because he lost the bid. - GMANews.TV