Arraignment of Mikey Arroyo, wife for tax raps reset for the 3rd time

A Quezon City court on Wednesday deferred for the third time the arraignment of Ang Galing Pinoy party-list Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo and his wife, Angela, for tax evasion charges.   A report on GMA News TV’s “News To Go” said the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 100 granted the Arroyo couple’s motion to reset the proceedings anew pending the resolution of their petition for review before the Department of Justice.   The couple wanted to reset the arraignment to June because of a scheduled foreign trip, but Presiding Judge Marie Christine Jacob scheduled it on April 19.   Lawyer Rosario Padilla of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which filed the tax evasion case against the Arroyos last October, said her camp will comply with the court’s decision to defer the arraignment.   “It’s ordinary court procedure. We are bound by the rules and the rules are being followed,” she said in a television interview.   Lawyer Ruy Rondain, the Arroyo couple’s counsel, said that he is confident that his clients will be cleared of the tax evasion charges.   The BIR is accusing Arroyo, eldest son of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, of failure to file his income tax return in 2005, 2008, and 2009 – years when he served as congressman of Pampanga’s second district. The post is now being occupied by his mother. The BIR is requiring the couple to pay P73.85 million in aggregate tax liabilities accumulated from 2004 to 2009.   Arroyo has claimed that the filing of the charges was a form of “political harassment.” — Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK, GMA News