Aguirre asks BIR to investigate Atong Ang’s tax liabilities

Gambling operator Charlie "Atong" Ang and the Meridien Vista Gaming Corporation now face a tax-evasion probe, this after Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II wrote a formal request to the Bureau of Internal Revenue to do so.

In a letter on Tuesday, Aguirre requested BIR Commissioner Cesar Dulay to look into the matter, citing the latter's power to initiate investigations for possible violations of the Tax Code.

"I trust that greater cooperation and confidence between the Department (of Justice) and the BIR will be forthcoming in our government's efforts to curb corruption and criminality in the country, particularly in cases of tax evasion," Aguirre said.

Aguirre had said that Ang was running a gambling business without paying the proper taxes to the government.

Also, he said that Meridien has no franchise to operate as a small town lottery (STL) unit by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), and that it had been targeted for closure.

Ang and Aguirre have been engaged in verbal tussle after the businessman accused the DOJ chief, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, and some retired generals belonging to the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1982 of plotting to kill him over his virtual Jai alai numbers game operations through Meridien.

The businessman claimed that the PCSO wants Meridien's operations stopped because it was competing with government-sanctioned STL.

Ang is consultant and general manager of the Cagayan Freeport-based Meridien.

He further alleged that Aguirre had directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to "liquidate" him, and that the Cabinet official's involvement in STL was through his engineer brother Ogie Aguirre.

Ang also said that Esperon was demanding a cut from proceeds of STL operations in Pangasinan.

Both Aguirre and Esperon belied Ang's accusations, which prompted Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to think about launching a legislative probe.

Aguirre, meanwhile, directed government agents to get into the bottom of Ang's "death threat" claims even as the NBI already dismissed them as a "product of his own wild imaginations."

The NBI has 15 days from receipt of the order to provide updates on the probe to Aguirre. —LBG, GMA News