Ombudsman asked to suspend De Lima, 5 BIR execs

A private citizen claiming to be an anti-graft crusader on Monday asked the Office of the Ombudsman to place under preventive suspension Justice Sec. Leila de Lima, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) commissioner Kim Hacinto-Henares, and four other BIR officials. In his five-page motion for preventive suspension, Danilo Lihaylihay said the six respondents should be temporarily suspended pending investigation into the alleged plunder they committed. The six respondents are facing a plunder complaint lodged against them by Lihaylihay, who said De Lima and the BIR officials "maliciously" connived to deprive him of his 25-percent reward for giving information on alleged tax evaders. "Complainant, by himself, most respectfully moves for the issuance of an order placing all public respondents under preventive suspension pending investigation of these cases," Lihaylihay said in his motion. The four other BIR officials were deputy commissioner Estella Sales, assistant commissioner Marissa Cabreros, law division head VC Cadangen, and law division lawyer Joan P. Quijano. Lihaylihay was the same complainant in the tax evasion complaint filed against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the sale of the old Iloilo airport in 2007. He said he deserves a P1.13-billion reward for supposedly providing the BIR with information about tax evaders. Plunder accusation vs De Lima, et al. "Instead of immediately disbursing/paying herein complainant of his P1.130 billion informer's reward monies consistent with existing laws, rules, and regulations as directed by the Office of the President, respondent BIR officials maliciously refused to pay thereof and then illegally connived with respondent Sec. of Justice Leila de Lima," Lihaylihay said in his motion. The connivance allegedly prompted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to publish a legal opinion revoking a 2006 department ruling of then Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. Lihaylihay claimed he was "shortchanged" and "robbed of [my] vested 25 percent informer's reward" when he informed the bureau about an alleged tax evasion involving the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Bank of America. De Lima had earlier dismissed the plunder complaint as a "nuisance suit." "That's plunder? Evidently a nuisance suit!" De Lima said. Henares also criticized Lihaylihay and insisted that the National Internal Revenue Code limits the amount of rewards to P1 million or 10-percent of the amount of taxes recovered, whichever is lower. "I cannot understand how we are guilty of plunder when we're saving government money. We're just implementing the law which says that you cannot give anyone a reward of more than P1 million or 10-percent [of revenues recovered], whichever is lower," Henares earlier told GMANews.TV. - KBK, GMANews.TV