Gandarosa lawyers prepare contempt raps

December 28, 2008

By Lizanilla J. Amarga

The lawyers of Bureau of Internal Revenue-16 (BIR-16) regional director Mustapha Gandarosa are now preparing separate contempt charges against those who are trying to unseat their client.

Atty. Frederico Gapuz, lead counsel to Gandarosa, explained that the Lanao del Norte Regional Trial Court Branch 7 presiding judge Alan Flores has issued orders preventing any move to transfer Gandarosa from his current position as the highest internal revenue collector in the region.

The lawyer furnished Gold Star Daily a copy of the seven-page preliminary injunction order issued by Flores last Nov. 21, 2008.

The court order prevents then outgoing internal revenue commissioner Lilian Hefti and Finance Secretary Margarito Teves from implementing the October 20, 2008 transfer order against Gandarosa.

Also, the same court order restrains the new commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue Sixto Esquivias IV and Teves from issuing any future order reassigning Gandarosa to any other position until the resolution of the case.

Lastly, it ordered Gandarosa to put up a P50,000 bond of which Gapuz said his client has already complied with on the same day the order was issued.

Gapuz said Hefti, Esquivias and Teves were duly represented by lawyers from the Solicitor General in the Tubod, Lanao del Norte hearing last Nov. 21, 2008.

And as such, he doubts that Esquivias and Teves would immediately violate any court order by issuing a second transfer order against Gandarosa and installing Olasiman as the new BIR-16 director in Nov. 25 as presented by assistant regional director Alberto Olasiman during a takeover last Dec. 3.

“But if there is indeed an order from Esquivias, that order is illegal and may be subject to contempt,” Gapuz said.

He added that they are now preparing separate contempt charges against those who are insisting on implementing the Oct. 20 Hefti-Teves transfer order against Gandarosa or a supposed second transfer order allegedly issued by Esquivias last Nov. 25.

This paper failed to contact Olasiman as of press time yesterday.

However, Coalition of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Northern Mindanao spokesperson Atty. Oscar Musni earlier said they have received a copy of the second Revenue Transfer Assignment Order (RTAO) No. 221 signed by Esquivias last Nov. 25.

He said Esquivias was not included in the case filed by Gandarosa over the first transfer order which was only signed by Hefti and such there was no legal obstacle to Esquivias’s order in that the official is not a respondent to Gandarosa’s case being handled in Tubod, Lanao Norte.

“The assumption of Olasiman is viewed as obedience to a lawful order and Director Gandarosa, by virtue of the new RTAO 221, is effectively relieved from office,” he had said.

And just last Friday, Musni sent a text message to this paper saying that their group has also received a copy of Memorandum Circular No. 01-2008 issued by Olasiman stating that the latter has now sole authority to issue termination letters, letters of authority, etc..

He quoted the same Olasiman order as providing that only transactions entered by with him in his new capacity as the new acting BIR-16 regional director are deemed valid and that those entered by any person from Oct. 20, 2008 shall be subject to review.

Last December 2, Olasiman has issued two memoranda announcing his takeover and to order the security guards manning their office to bar Gandarosa’s appointees from getting inside the BIR-16 office at Bulua this city.

He involved a second transfer order for Gandarosa whch was signed by Esquivias which ordered Gandarosa to supposedly report for work as chief of-staff for the BIR’s Special Concerns Group in Manila .

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