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Two former finance executives have been cleared of tax credit fraud.

MANILA, Philippines β€” The Sandiganbayan has acquitted two former officials of the Department of Finance (DOF) who were charged with an alleged irregular award of tax credits more than 20 years ago.

The anti-graft court’s Second Division acquitted Raul De Vera and Brandy Marzan of estafa and violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in a 39-page ruling dated March 11 and recently released online, citing the prosecution’s “failure to show their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Between 1997 and 1999, De Vera and Marzan, then-Officer-in-Charge of the Net Local Content Division and senior tax specialist of the defunct DOF One-Stop-Shop-Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center, were accused of giving corporations unfair benefits.

The anti-corruption court also exonerated De Vera and Marzan of civil liability, stating that “there being a lack to prove that the accused’s activities are felonious, the fact from which civil liability can arise does not exist.”

The issue concerned allegedly providing unjustified benefits to Land Car Inc. (LCI), which filed a tax credit claim and faked sales invoices for 11 buses valued at PHP4.8 million per bus while the actual price was PHP1.47 million.

Despite knowing about overpricing, misrepresentation, and falsification, the officials approved and gave a tax credit certificate (TCC) to LCI worth PHP5.5 million, according to the allegations.

Following his death in November 2021, the lawsuit against their supervisor, former undersecretary Antonio Belicena, who was the center’s Executive Director, was dismissed.

Belicena’s lawyers had requested that the proceedings be suspended or dismissed due to the accused’s dementia, which deemed him incapable to face trial, before he died.

Similarly, in 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed Sandiganbayan’s verdict in 2011 that cleared Belicena in a plunder case involving another corporation in the TCC scheme.

Deputy Administrator Uldarico Andutan Jr., another official, eluded capture and is still at large. His case has been put on hold until he can be hauled before the court.

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