The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has asked the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Department of Justice to prosecute two officials of the Liberal Party and their mining firm for alleged multimillion-peso tax evasion.
In a letter sent to the BIR and the DoJ, the DENR sought an investigation of Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice and LP financier Patrick Angelo “Eric” Gutierrez for “the alleged failure of SR Metals Inc. to disclose and comply fully with its tax obligations.”
The plea for tax probe came after the DENR’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau has found after investigation that SRMI has exceeded the 50,000-ton allowed annual volume for a small-scale miner and consequently, which earlier resulted in the issuance of a cease and desist order against the mining firm.
The letter complaint signed by DENR Undersecretary for Climate Change Service and Mining Concerns lawyer Analiza Rebuelta said the complaint was also sent to the BIR, tasked to conduct fact-finding probe and case buildup on tax evasion cases before filing with the DoJ for preliminary investigation.
The department also forwarded the complaint it earlier received from Rodney Basiana of Basiana Mining Exploration Corp. and asked the BIR and DoJ to “ look into the tax liabilities of SRMI and its affiliates for failing to pay or remit to BIR the tax due from the 5 percent of the gross proceeds amounting to millions of pesos.”
Basiana accused SRMI of carting away with P2.8 billion in revenue from unauthorized operations.
“SRMI began its operations in 2006 as a swindle—I had been hoodwinked. The government, the DENR, in particular had been duped. SRMI used the documents of BMEC under which Tubay Exploration was assigned to go into operations in the guise of small-scale mining, with a 50,000-ton limit on yearly ore extraction. SRMI used a copy of the official receipt for P5,520 that BMEC paid for in its application for a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement [MPSAI]in 1997 with the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the DENR,” Basiana alleged, in its letter complaint to DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu.
The complainant said: “The small-scale mining operation in just one year beginning 2006 had sold P2.8 billion – and exceeded the yearly 50,000-ton limit many times over.
“Within a decade, SRMI had realized over P28 billion in revenues from nickel ore shipments to China, as records of the Philippine Ports Authority and MGB would show.”
Basiana filed a criminal complaint for falsification of documents against Erice, Gutierrez and other executives of SRMI — John Anthony Gutierrez, Miguel Alberto (Mico) Gutierrez, Alejandro Basalio and Antonio Dimabayu — before the Surigao City Prosecutors’ Office late last year.
A small-scale miner from Agusan Del Norte, Basiana accused the respondents, who were all officers and members of the board of SMRI in 2005, of making it appear that their corporation was the holder of mining claims over an 81-hectare area in Tubay, Agusan Del Norte when it was Basiana’s company, Basiana Mining Exploration Corp. which held such rights.
The complainant alleged that BMEC had a small-scale mining application as MPSA No. (XIII)-00014 for Tubay dated 31 July 1997 for which it paid the corresponding application fee of P5,520 under official receipt no. 2817891 also dated 31 July 1997.
In August 2000, BMEC assigned its rights over its mining application to Manila Mining Corp. with the express provision that notwithstanding the agreement, it remained the real and true owner of the application and that it can revoke agreement anytime.
In October 2005, BMEC exercised its rights to revoke its Deed of Assignment to MMC.
Thereafter, on October 18, 2005, BMEC executed a Deed of Assignment over its mining application in favor of SRMI, which was then headed by Erice and Eric Gutierrez.
Under the same agreement, SRMI confirmed and recognized Basiana’s beneficial ownership of the mining claims and granted him five percent of the gross proceeds of the sales of the mining yields as may be extracted.
As a result thereof, SRMI was granted permit and thereafter commenced mining operations in Brgys. La Fraternidad, Binuangan and Sta. Ana in Tubay, Agusan Del Norte.
However, SRMI reneged on its obligation to remit the five percent to Basiana.
The complainant then discovered that Erice and Gutierrez forged Basiana’s mining application and Official Receipt by making it appear that SRMI was the one who applied and paid for the application in July 1997.
He said SRMI could not possibly apply for MPSA in 1997 because it was only organized and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission only in May 2005.
Despite such spurious documents, SRMI was able to engage in not only in small-scale mining but large-scale mining operations in Tubay, Agusan Del Norte and had transported and exported nickel and iron ores valued in the billions.
This prompted the Basianas to move to nullify SRMI’s application in February 2008.
But then DENR Secretary Lito Atienza ignored Basiana’s motion and proceeded to issue a new MPSA in favor of SRMI using as basis the spurious documents.
With the same documents giving the go-ahead for small-scale miner Basiana, SRMI went on to strip off over 800 hectares of land within barangays La Fraternidad, Binuangan, and Sta. Ana in Tubay town, Agusan del Norte.
In a Senate inquiry in 2012, Gutierrez admitted that their firm “over-extracted 1.8 million tons of nickel ore.”
Mining laws limit small-scale mine ore extraction to 50,000 tons per year.
In the same Senate hearing, it was established that the Gutierrez firm had shipped out to China nickel ores worth P2.8 billion.