Jeanne Catherine Lim Napoles (SCREENGRAB FROM YOUTUBE)
The Court of Tax Appeals has junked the tax protest of Jeane Catherine Napoles after her camp failed to show up for pretrial for a third time.
During the scheduled pretrial hearing on Thursday, the tax court’s Second Division immediately approved the motion by government lawyer Niña Suzette Mendoza to dismiss the tax protest.
The court junked the case without holding a full-blown trial on Napoles’ May 2016 petition for review questioning the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s assessment that serves as basis for her separate P17.46-million tax evasion case.
Justice Caesar A. Casanova was the regular member present during the hearing, along with substitute member Justice Ma. Belen Ringpis-Liban.
Criminal cases
Napoles’ criminal cases for tax evasion are still pending trial in the court’s Third Division.
She was accused of failing to pay P17.88 million in taxes on her Ritz Carlton apartment in California in 2011 and a farm lot in Pangasinan province in 2012.
Napoles was cast into the limelight after her lavish lifestyle was publicized at the height of the controversy faced by her mother Janet Lim-Napoles, who allegedly facilitated the misuse of lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations through bogus foundations.