The Court of Tax Appeals dismissed the motion of Jaime Napoles, husband of priority development assistance fund (PDAF) scam alleged mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, to quash the lawsuit against him over National Internal Revenue Code violations, thus proceeding to trial.
“Upon denial of petitioner’s Motion to Quash, the Court must proceed with the trial,” the decision read as reported by The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Associate Justice Cielito Mindaro-Grulla promulgated the 11-page decision on Wednesday, September 19, that expels the request of Napoles. The court “denied the motion to quash for lack of merit” and therefore “finds the existence of probable cause to hold the accused for trial.”
“The Motion to Quash cannot, in any way, be considered as a decision finally disposing the case against petitioner,” Grulla wrote.
Napoles requested the court to drop the complaint from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) over the alleged “deliberate failure to supply correct and accurate information in his income tax returns (ITR)” amounting to P16.47 million.
The Tax Court’s Third Division also denied Napoles’ motion for reconsideration. He then hoisted the case up before an en banc, thus requiring a full court resolution through a petition for the judges to review the case.
However, the CTA in its ruling, declared that a petition to review the case before a court en banc right after the dismissal of his motion to quash the lawsuit is not a proper move for the petitioner.
The tax court also indicated that even if, hypothetically, the filed motion before an banc is deemed proper, it is not possible that the Third Division would commit such a mistake or ruling that would guarantee a reversal of decision in favor of Napoles.
The husband of the pork barrel scam primary suspect is in trial for allegedly failing to declare and file his ITRs for six years, specifically in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012. He even allegedly declared an income of “P0.00” in his ITR way back 2009.
The investigation conducted by the BIR proved otherwise, as it showed the estates Napoles owned in his name including real properties, vehicles, insurance policies and club memberships, and millions worth of investments.
The data obtained five years ago showed that Napoles’ total acquisition is worth P1.42 million in 2004, P5.51 million in 2006, P0.78 million in 2008, P9.25 million in 2009, P2.1 million in 2010, P1.17 million in 2011 and P3.65 million in 2012.
The acquisitions included condominium units in City & Land Mega Plaza and the Discovery Center, parcels of land in Pangasinan and Kidapawan City, Insurance policies with Insular Life Assurance Co., Ltd., Philippine American Life & General Insurance Co., Inc., and Philippine Axa Life Insurance Corp., and vehicles such as Ford Lincoln Navigator, Honda Civic and Porsche Cayenne.
