📷Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo
IN what appears to be an orchestrated move, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is now looking into the names and companies believed to be owned or invested in by the embattled Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo.
In a statement, BIR commissioner Romeo Lumagui formed a team to check on possible tax liabilities, deficiencies – or at worse, evasion committed by listed incorporators in the companies mentioned by Guo herself in the congressional inquiry over suspicions linking the Bamban local chief executive to the criminal activities attributed to Zun Yuan Technologies, Inc. in the 10-hectare complex owned by Baofu Land Development Corp, of which she is a primary incorporator.
“If the income declared with the BIR does not match the value of the properties amassed during the same taxable years, criminal cases for tax evasion will be filed,” Lumagui assured.
The BIR also expressed willingness to sit as a resource person in the ongoing Senate investigation, even as he called on public vigilance by way of becoming a government informant – a measure he claimed would significantly help build-up a case against the embattled mayor.
He also enjoined the private sector to help provide the necessary documents and pieces of evidence in auditing Guo and the companies she mentioned during the Senate hearings conducted by the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality.
Based on documents presented by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, Guo owns at least 16 vehicles. However, the 37-year old Guo insisted that those cars (mostly high-end), are no longer part of her assets. She claimed that those cars were owned by her car trading company Westcars.
Aside from the Baofu land Development Corp. and Westcars, the BIR will also be looking into the tax records of her livestock business, meatshop, farms and embroidery business. (ANGEL F. JOSE)
