PACC's Belgica sued over alleged unlawful participation in NBI raid

Commissioner Greco Belgica of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission was sued for graft and violation of the Revised Penal Code and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Practices for Public Officials on Tuesday over the alleged unlawful use of his office’s resources by participating in a raid on two Bureau of Internal Revenue officials.

The complaint, lodged Tuesday by a certain Monalie Dizon with Office of the Ombudsman, accused Belgica of defying PACC rules by acting on this own and joining an entrapment operation against two BIR employees who were allegedly about to receive bribe money.

Dizon did not provide further details of the said incident, but in June 2018, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announced that BIR Regional Investigation Division special investigators Arturo Buniol, Gary Atanacio, and Edgardo Javier were arrested in an entrapment operation in Greenhills, San Juan, and now faced charges for seeking a P75,000 to P600,000 cut form a one-year-old restaurant's tax liability amounting P1.2 million.

Dizon alleged that during the raid, Belgica, who said he had the backing of the PACC, even took possession of a firearm and acted as if he was going to shoot the suspects with the PACC’s authority.

In addition, Dizon claimed that Belgica requested the NBI to deploy agents who would assist him in the entrapment operation without PACC’s authority, and that the BIR officials involved were below Salary Grade 26 and were therefore beyond PACC’s jurisdiction.

“Belgica failed to observe the norms of conduct of public officials under the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials. He chose personal interest—which is to attain publicity—over public interest when he alerted the media to cover his operation in spite of the fact that the Commission did not sanction the operation,” Dizon said in her complaint filed on Tuesday, November 26.

“It cannot be denied that Belgica's purpose of doing these raids and entrapments of alleged suspects was for a purely personal matter,” Dizon added.

Sought for comment, Belgica denied the allegations and accused Dizon of fabricating accusations against him.

Belgica said he had refused Dizon's request as request a case pending with the PACC.

“Ms. Dizon used to ask for favors from my office which I have acted upon in accordance with existing laws. However, Ms. Dizon started to ask requests which are either unlawful or illegal,” Belgica said.

“She was persuading and influencing me to decide and perform an act on her favor in connection with an on-going investigation we were conducting. Knowing that such acts are illegal, I refused to comply,” Belgica added.

Belgica said Dizon’s claims against him were part of a smear campaign.

“Her tactic is to smear the reputation of high-ranking government officials who do not give in to her demands through different social media platforms such as Facebook, and consequently file weak and baseless cases against them. All the cases she filed were dismissed accordingly,” Belgica said.

“Clearly, this is part of an ongoing demolition job against me by syndicates and corrupt government officials we have charged and arrested.  Rest assured, I will not allow harassment to weaken my commitment to stand for truth and justice, and in fighting corruption,” Belgica added. —DVM, GMA News