BIR tax review on Loot, ‘Peter Lims’ this week

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue District Office said it may finish its tax return validation on Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot and all the “Peter Lims” in Cebu sometime this week.

Loot’s tax return is being validated in Mandaue City Revenue District Office since his properties and businesses are located in the north and in the same city.

Mandaue Revenue District Officer Ric Espiritu said they are retrieving both computer data and actual returns.

“We can review the profile. This includes the taxpayer’s name, trade name, taxpayer identification number (TIN), address, line of business, also returns and taxes paid if any by the taxpayer,” he said.

But Espiritu said sometimes returns are suspended if there is wrong information like the wrong TIN.

“That is why we have to look for the actual returns filed since the data is more accurate,” Espiritu said.

As far as the “Peter Lims” are concerned, Espiritu said they are also reviewing their data on the “Peter Lims” under their district office regardless of their middle name.

Lawyer Neri Yu, chief legal officer for BIR 13, said they ordered other district officers in the region to check how many “Peter Lims” are in their records.

“We can also visit the establishments. Fraud or not fraud, we can visit just to validate the kind of business engaged to determine their declaration of income,” he said.

BIR 13 Director Herminio Palamine instructed personnel to validate the tax returns of Loot and all “Peter Lims” in the region.

Loot has been named by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte as one of five PNP generals allegedly protecting drug lords.

Loot declared a net worth of P108 million in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) and listed 10 motor vehicles, one sports car, two jet skis, one speedboat, 12 house and lot units, four agricultural lots, beach front properties, a lending company, cockpit arena, jewelry and cash he owned with his wife, former Daanbantayan mayor Ma. Luisa Loot.

His taxable income with his wife is about P1.5 million a year.

Other four generals named by Duterte as drug protectors were retired Deputy Director-General Marcelo Garbo Jr., Director Joel Pagdilao, and Chief Superintendents Bernardo Diaz and Edgardo Tinio.

President Duterte also mentioned a certain “Peter Lim” from the Visayas as a major drug dealer.

But Dioscoro Fuentes Jr., who represented a Cebuano businessman who happens to be named Peter Lim, denied that his client was the same Lim referred to by President Duterte.

Lim and his brother, Wellington, were subjects of a congressional inquiry on illegal drugs in 2001 by former Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City’s south district, but they were cleared.

Fuentes claimed there were 110 persons named Peter Lim who were registered at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in 2001.