‘Smaze’ ‘delays’ arraignment of Napoles husband

Jaime and Janet Napoles. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Smaze has indirectly caused the rescheduling of the arraignment of Jaime Napoles, husband of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles on charges of tax evasion.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, government prosecutors told the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) that the Napoles camp violated the three-day-notice rule when it filed the motion to quash the information (charge sheet) for tax evasion only last Monday, Oct. 26, two days before the scheduled arraignment.

READ: DOJ orders tax raps vs Janet Napoles, husband

The three-day-notice rule under Rule 15 of the Rules of Court requires every written motion required to be heard, including the Notice of Hearing, to be served upon the adverse party at least three days before the date of hearing.

Napoles’ counsel, Atty. Ian Dela Cruz Encarnacion, told the high court that he personally gave the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) a copy of the motion also last Monday.

He said the motion was supposed to be filed last week but his flight from Tagbilaran to Manila was delayed due to smaze.

READ: ‘Smaze’ starting to clear–Pagasa

The Tax Court gave the prosecutors 15 days to comment and then the motion will be submitted for resolution.

Arraignment was reset on Jan. 27, 2016.

Mr. Napoles’ tax liability based on the DOJ resolution is P16,470,402.7 for 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2012.