Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
It’s all fake news, lawyer Jose Deinla said on Monday of the allegations that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno failed to disclose some P30-million earnings received for the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco) case in 2003 and that she failed to pay her taxes.
Among the allegations against Sereno in the impeachment case pending at the House of Representatives is the alleged misdeclaration in her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) because she supposedly hid her P30-million earning as government counsel in the arbitration case involving the expropriation of NAIA Terminal 3.
Aside from the from the misdeclaration of her SALN, lawmakers believe that among the “heaviest charges” against Sereno is her nonpayment of taxes.
But Deinla, one of Sereno’s spokespersons, said: “There is no anomaly in her SALNs. It is unreasonable for anyone to expect her earnings from the Piatco case to be intact.”
Deinla stressed that Sereno had invested her earnings in properties that were reflected in her SALNs.
In fact, Deinla said, after a recomputation was conducted it was discovered that there was an overpayment on the part of Sereno.
“Everything, all her obligations to the Republic as a taxpayer have been followed to the letter,” Deinla said.
All of it, she said, had been put on record. /atm