Aquino, Purisima and Shell executives Edgar Chua, Robert Kanapi, and Nigel Avila have yet to comment on the graft complaint.
After his term ends, former President Benigno Aquino III and others are facing graft charges in connection to uncollected taxes during his administration.
Former President Benigno ‘Noynoy” Aquino III is facing new charges after his term ended on June 30, 2016.
On Wednesday, the graft charges was filed against Aquino, former finance secretary Cesar Purisima and executives of oil giant Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. before the Office of the Ombudsman.
The subject of the complaint originated from the smuggling issue Shell faced in the year 2010.
This is in connection to over an alleged P100-billion state revenue loses on wrongfully declared and classified petroleum products in the Philippines.
They are facing the charges in violating the “Tariff and Customs Code” and the “Doctrine of Command Responsibility in all Government Offices.”
The complainants in the case were former customs commissioner Napoleon Morales, former customs collector Juan Tan and Batangas-based journalist Lourdes Aclan.
They claimed the Philippine government lost about P100 billion after the Aquino administration failed to demand tax payments from Shell.
Shell allegedly did not comply on tax payments starting year 2004 after it declared that import entries of unleaded gasoline as “tetrapropylene.” Shell had claimed tetrapropylene is not covered by excise tax under the National Internal Revenue Code.
From an “exclusively for sale”, the classification of unleaded gasoline, Catalytic Cracked Gasoline (CCG) and Light Catalytic Cracked Gasoline (LCCG), was also changed finished product to a mere “blending component.”
Still, the Bureau of Customs demanded the company to pay P7.348 billion taxes.
Instead of complying, Shell changed the name of the declared gasoline shipment from “CCG” and “LCCG” to “Alkylate,” which was classified as non-taxable waste material.
The complainants elaborated that the P7.348-billion worth of taxes supposedly collected from CCG and LCCG, and P1.9 billion from Alkylate shipments has accumulated to over P100 billion in six years.
They added, Aquino and Purisima did not give due attention to Aclan’s letter which called on the administration’s attention over the uncollected taxes.
If we will include the interest, surcharges and 800% penalty, it will reach P100 billion, Tan said.
He added that it’s the government’s money. For more than 6 years the money is with Shell.