Panel approves stiffer penalties for tax fraud

By Maricel V. Cruz

THE House of Representatives Com- mittee on Ways and Means on Tuesday approved a bill making the act of “coordinated” tax fraud a separate crime with stiffer penalties under the National Internal Revenue Code.

The House tax panel, chaired by Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda however, deleted the provision in Salceda’s proposal which would have made the offense non-bailable.

In his sponsorship of the measure, Salceda said “such nefarious activities must be defined and criminalized since it constitutes economic sabotage, following the doctrine that taxes are the lifeblood of the state.”

Salceda’s proposal defines tax rack- eteering as “attempts to engage in any coordinated scheme or operation to repeatedly or consistently evade or defeat any tax imposed under this code through the fraudulent use of receipts.”

Salceda pushed for higher penalties on the offense, citing that even if the BIR tries to catch incidents of largescale tax fraud, “it will not have a proportional deterrent effect.” sons felt dizzy and collapsed because of too much heat.

“Despite these efforts, however, they will be charged with crimes that ordinary or smaller tax violators can be charged with. That is because the Tax Code enumerates various forms of tax evasion as criminal liabilities, but does not address the systematic and coordinated scheme to evade taxes,” Salceda said. Salceda also proposed that the crime be made non-bailable.

Villar said the inquiry aims to assess the current status of heat index monitoring and warning systems in the country, identify the potential impacts of extreme heat on public health and the economy, and determine the best practices and technologies on heat index monitoring and alert systems in other countries.

During the hearing conducted Tuesday by the House Committee on public order and safety, Yamsuan also proposed that the Philippine National Police (PNP) include the expenses for the training of personnel who will secure these body-camera recordings in the proposed budget of the Philippine National Police (PNP) for 2024.

“You should include in your proposal for the body-worn cameras the corresponding training of personnel, because it is important that such individuals are highly skilled to handle this kind of sensitive data,” Yamsuan told PNP officials present during the hearing.

Yamsuan also said the PNP should ensure that these recordings are hackfree and tamper-proof when presented in court as evidence.

“For the individuals involved, it could affect their lives if the PNP commits errors in submitting these videos and other data,” Yamsuan said.

Yamsuan manifested his proposal during the committee hearing chaired by Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez to discuss several measures seeking to institutionalize the use by police personnel of body cameras during law enforcement operations, and appropriating funds for this purpose.

Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, a vice chairperson of the committee and a former police general; along with PATROL Partylist Rep, Jorge Bustos, agreed with Yamsuan’s proposal.

Barbers urges Congress to act on AI defense

By Maricel V. Cruz

SURIGAO del Norte Rep. Robert Ace

Barbers on Tuesday urged his colleagues to speed up the enactment of a law creating a “superbody” to protect the public from the risks and dangers posed by the emerging global technological phenomenon called artificial intelligence (AI).

Barbers, chairman of the House Dangerous Drugs Committee, said his call was prompted by the disclosure of Geoffrey Hinton, a former Engineer of Google and dubbed as the ‘Godfather of AI,’ that the new technology he himself helped develop poses danger to society and humanity.

“The ‘AI Godfather’ himself, Geoffrey Hinton, had been quoted in news reports as saying ‘AI could kill humans and there might be no way to stop it.’ This is aside from alarms raised by advocacy groups and tech insiders that the new crop of AI-powered chatbots could be used to spread misinformation and displace jobs,” he said.

Barbers, quoting news reports, said the wave of attention around ChatGPT late last year helped renew an arms race among tech companies to develop and deploy similar tools in their products. “And based on reports, OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are at the forefront of this trend, but IBM, Amazon, Baidu and Tencent are working on similar technologies.”

“I don’t want to sound like an alarmist. But we have no way of stopping the global use and development of AI. And while we acknowledge the benefits that AI might bring, we should also seriously consider the great risks and dangers it poses to society and humanity,” he said.