Tax court en banc denies TRO plea of Napoles husband

Jaime Napoles, husband of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet, has lost his bid for the issuance of a temporary restraining order in his P16.47-million tax evasion case at the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA).

The CTA en banc denied the petition for certiorari of Napoles in a decision dated September 19. The en banc also affirmed the resolution of the Third Division finding probable cause to hold him for trial.

The CTA said the petition of Napoles was not the proper remedy on the denial of his motion for reconsideration for the continuation of his charges of three counts of violation of Section 254 and two counts of violation of 255 of the National Internal Revenue Code.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) accused Napoles of failing to pay the right amount of taxes for the years 2006, 2009 and 2012, and for under-declaring his tax obligations in his income tax returns for years 2006 and 2012.

In 2016, the Third Division denied the appeal of Napoles on the dismissal of his quashal motion. This forced him to seek a petition before the en banc.

Napoles had said the Department of Justice, which pursued the case, cannot pass the burden of proving his guilt to the BIR.

However, the CTA said Napoles should have appealed the findings of the Third Division instead of pleading for a TRO on the trial.

The CTA said the plea of Napoles was only acceptable if the resolution of the Third Division on the denial of his motion for reconsideration is "without or in excess of jurisdiction or with grave abuse of discretion, and the remedy of appeal would not afford adequate and expeditious relief."

"The petitioner carries the burden of showing that the attendant facts and circumstances fall within any of the cited instances. Thus, a direct resort to a special civil action for certiorari is an exception rather than the general rule, and is a recourse that must be firmly grounded on compelling reasons," the CTA said.

"Upon denial of petitioner's motion to quash, the court must proceed with the trial. The conviction or acquittal of petitioner by the Third Division is a final order that completely disposes of the case. The petitioner's remedy then is to appeal the Third Division's decision," it added.

Napoles' wife is also facing multiple counts of tax evasion cases before the CTA  over her alleged failure to pay P44.71 million worth of tax liabilities for years 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Their youngest daughter Jeane, on the other hand, was able to secure the dismissal of her P17.5-million tax liability case for "insufficiency of evidence." — MDM, GMA News