DOJ taking time to file P17-M tax case vs Napoles daughter

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has yet to file a P17.88-million tax evasion case against Jeane Napoles – daughter of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles – before the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA), The STAR learned yesterday.

A search of the electronic database of the CTA showed that there is no pending case against the younger Napoles, despite the September 2014 ruling of the DOJ panel of prosecutors which found probable cause to file charges against her.

Such late filing of charges is not an unusual case, as it also took the DOJ almost a year to file the tax evasion complaint against impeached chief justice Renato Corona.

The DOJ found probable cause to indict Corona for 12 counts of tax evasion in April 2013, but the case was only filed before the CTA in March 2014.

In its Sept. 11, 2014 resolution, the DOJ found probable cause to indict the younger Napoles on two counts of attempting to evade tax and two counts of failure to file an income tax return for the years 2011 and 2012.

The case stemmed from the P32-million Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) case against Napoles. The DOJ, however, only approved the filing of the case on basic tax liabilities amounting to P17.88 million.

On Sunday, DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima said she ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to look into reports that Jeane, who signed her counter-affidavit on the case in London, is back in the country.

De Lima likewise asked prosecutors to confirm if an arrest warrant has been issued against her.

But it turned out that no arrest warrant has been issued, as there is no case filed against the younger Napoles.

Jeane has been the subject of online rage in the past after social media posts on her supposed luxurious and ostentatious lifestyle went viral on the Internet.