Veteran hard-hitting broadcaster and columnist Ramon Tulfo has nothing but respect for fellow journalist Nancy Carvajal amid her fearless reporting about the “syndicate” behind the fake tax receipt scam.
“Congratulations, Nancy! You’re a woman with big balls,” Tulfo wrote on Facebook.
Carvajal broke the news about the fake tax receipts allegedly benefiting certain politikos, government contractors, and even multinational companies in her articles posted on Bilyonaryo.com as well as Politiko (politics.com.ph).
It was Carvajal, a former Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter, who also first brought to light the controversial pork barrel scam that triggered a government probe and resulted in the filing of charges against persons allegedly involved.
According to Tulfo, Carvajal seemed to be “in the right places at the right time.”
“Journalist Nancy Carvajal of BILYONARYO. COM does it again!” Tulfo wrote on Facebook.
“When Carvajal was with PDI she exposed the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam that led to the conviction of Janet Napoles, the mastermind, and the jailing of several lawmakers who connived with her,” he said.
“Now, as BILYONARYO. COM reporter, Carvajal has exposed a syndicate that sold fake BIR tax receipts to big companies. The receipts made it appear that the companies concerned paid taxes, making the government lose trillions of pesos (repeat, trillions) in revenues over a 14-year period,” he added.
Tulfo revealed that he learned about the activities of the fake tax receipts “syndicate” from his source. When he raised the matter to authorities, Tulfo claimed that this issue fell on deaf ears.
“Actually, this former columnist learned about the activities of the syndicate through my mole inside. The mole and I went to then BIR Commissioner Cesar Dulay and told him about the syndicate. Nothing happened,” he said.
“Then when BBM won, I told First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos about the syndicate. Still nothing happened. I planned to write about the tax-receipt syndicate after government agents would have raided the syndicate office at Eastwood,” he said.
In a recent article of Carvajal, a number of multinational companies in the country allegedly evaded the payment of correct taxes by using fake receipts manufactured by a certain firm.
Another article exposed some politikos and contractors for government projects for allegedly benefitting from the fake tax receipt scam. An investigation into the matter has been launched by the National Bureau of Investigation.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue has already filed charges against the alleged sellers of fake receipts, including four ghost corporations and their accountants.
Criminal cases were also lodged against buyers of fake receipts that led to tax losses worth P17.9 billion
