‘Valuable’ lawyer was not fired from DOF

May I clarify for the sake of accuracy a portion of the column of Ramon Tulfo titled “BIR row turns into full-blown war” (Metro, 7/15/17).

Lawyer Gaudencio Mendoza, who was my former undersecretary of finance for legal and revenue operations group, was not kicked out or fired from the Department of Finance. To be fair to  Mendoza, he voluntarily resigned from the DOF to pursue his legal career in the private sector.

I accepted the resignation of Mendoza with regret.

As a nonlawyer, I found Mendoza to have been extremely helpful and valuable in providing consistently sound legal advice on major issues and projects presented to the DOF.

GARY B. TEVES,

former secretary,

Department of Finance