A House leader on Monday urged Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar Dulay to support President Rodrigo Duterte’s position for the government to enter out-of-court settlements with companies facing tax evasion charges
This would generate funds for Duterte’s pro-poor programs, especially the upgrading of hospitals, said Cagayan Rep. Randolph Ting, chairman of the House committee on labor.
Ting made the appeal after Dulay threatened to close Mighty Corp., the country’s leading Filipino-owned cigarette manufacturing company, this month.
“The President already ordered to deal with them [through settlements]. They should be penalized, but their operations should not be canceled,” Ting stressed Monday as the nation celebrated Labor Day.
The lawmaker said he believes the BIR under Dulay will support the President’s desires.
“I do not think the BIR commissioner can ignore the order of President Duterte. I think he [Dulay] should follow the lead of the President, that should be the case here,” Ting pointed out.
He also warned that Dulay’s threat against Mighty could have economic and employment repercussion, as government officials should instead work on ensuring investments and job generation program for Filipinos, he explained.
“Government officials should consider the repercussions of this BIR plan,” Ting said.
The lawmaker also supported Mighty’s request of to continue its operations and sales activities to protect their employees, despite the BIR filing a P9.5-billion tax evasion case against the cigarette maker before the Department of Justice last April 20.
“I believe that we should even protect this company, being a Filipino brand, by allowing it to correct the concerns raised against them,” said Ting.
He recalled that Mighty officials “have been very cooperative and supportive” of President Duterte for them to settle whatever standing tax obligations the company may have.
With the BIR’s closure threat over the unpaid taxes, at least 6,000 direct and indirect employees of Mighty —about 30,000 Filipinos, including their families—and 55,000 tobacco farmers or 300,000 Filipinos, including their loved ones, are about to be affected, the lawmaker said.
“Where will these people go for jobs and livelihood? This [corporation] is already an established company and a Filipino firm that has been providing jobs for Filipinos for a very long time. We should not allow their closure,” Ting said.
The constituents of all tobacco-producing provinces will also be affected should tobacco farmers no longer plant, disqualifying them from getting their national fund allocations under the Sin Tax Law or Republic Act 7171, he added.
His comments echoed that of Mario Cabasal, President of the National Federation of Tobacco Farmers Association and Cooperatives, who said hundreds of scholars and tobacco farmers in the country may be affected by the BIR threat to close Mighty.
Cabasal said prices of tobacco products have gone down due to the closure of Mighty, which was buying the farmers’ so-called “low grade and reject” Virginia tobacco products.
