2 BIR employees arrested for direct bribery, corruption

Two employees of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) were arrested in an entrapment operation over alleged attempts to receive money from a corporation that sought an examination of its books of accounts, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said.

NBI Director Jaime Santiago said the two assessed a corporation in Taguig and found that it should pay P36 million. But after negotiating with the corporation, the two lowered this to P6 million and further reduced it to P800,000.

“Naging P6 million na lang. Sige ayusin natin ‘yan, P6 million na lang. And further pang bumaba na P800,000 na lang daw,” he said in a briefing. 

(It became only P6 million. Okay, let’s fix that, only P6 million. And further it dropped to only P800,000, reportedly.)

“Okay, pero ganito kasunduan, P200,000 lang ang reresibuhan ng gobyerno [at] ‘yung P600,000 mapupunta sa kanila,” he added.

(Okay, but here’s the agreement: only P200,000 will be given to the government and the P600,000 will go to them.)

According to Santiago, the two were arrested at the office of the BIR. 

The agent on the case, meanwhile, said the two individuals did not deny that they are employees of the bureau.

“Hindi naman ho dineny ng mga accused natin na sila ay officers ng BIR, no. As a matter of fact, ‘yung entrapment ay nangyari sa opisina ng BIR,” he said.

(It wasn’t denied by our accused that they are officers of the BIR, no. As a matter of fact, the entrapment happened in the BIR office.)

The two will face complaints for direct bribery and corruption, according to an NBI press statement. —LDF, GMA Integrated News