BIR chief: 'Tax anomaly' in airport property sale not our concern yet

The Bureau of Internal Revenue said Thursday it is still too early for it to check whether tax evasion is involved in the plunder complaint filed against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The plunder complaint involves the allegedly anomalous sale of the old Iloilo airport property in 2007. Complainant Danilo Lihaylihay, a private citizen and an anti-corruption advocate, claimed the government sold the property in October 2007 for P1.2 billion, and that the corresponding 6-percent capital gains tax amounting P72 million did not go to government coffers. Arroyo, who faced the Department of Justice preliminary investigation last Wednesday, submitted a counter-affidavit denying the transaction was anomalous. Her lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, said the elements of plunder — accumulation, acquisition, and amassing of ill-gotten wealth — were absent in the complaint. At a news briefing on Thursday, BIR commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares said the bureau will not yet step in because there is a standing government legal opinion saying the land sale is not subject to capital gains tax. "There is an opinion... that says when the government sells that property, it is not subject to capital gains tax. Until and unless there are reasons to overturn [that legal opinion], I think there is no basis for us to look into it," said Henares. She added that until the DOJ inquiry decides that the legal opinion should be reversed, "[the plunder issue] is not a BIR matter…." Mendoza had earlier said filing a tax case against Arroyo will be "ridiculous." He added that Lihaylihay's complaint is "baseless" and "absurd." "But what did President Arroyo do? She just issued [the] executive order, authorizing sale of Iloilo airport. So she did not perform the sale. And there is no allegation whatsoever that that sale was irregular, that anybody made money on the sale," said Mendoza. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV