The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Wednesday said two supposed employees of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) were arrested over an alleged scheme to solicit a kickback from a corporation.
According to NBI Director Jaime Santiago, the two BIR employees tried to solicit a kickback from the taxes they claimed the corporation owed the government.
Santiago said the two first presented a letter of authority to assess the corporation they supposedly determined owed the bureau P36 million in taxes.
‘They lowered it to P6 million and later on it suddenly became P800,000,’ said Santiago in Filipino during a press conference.
‘But the agreement was that the government would only receive P200,000, while the remaining P600,000 would go to them,’ he added.
Asked if the BIR has confirmed that the two individuals were really its employees, the NBI agent in charge of the case only said both suspects did not deny that they were officers of the agency.
‘As a matter of fact, the entrapment occurred at the BIR office,’ the agent said, speaking in Filipino.