Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
No hocus pocus in Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s tax payments.
The camp of Sereno made this assurance on Wednesday, stressing that the top magistrate has “accurately and properly declared all her earnings” when she received legal fees as counsel in the Philippine International Air Terminals Company Incorporated (Piatco) case.
“Chief Justice Sereno has accurately and properly declared all her earnings as government co-legal counsel in the PIATCO cases,” Josa Deinla, Sereno’s spokesperson, said in a statement.
“She declared all her fees from services faithfully rendered to the Philippine government in her income tax returns and paid the corresponding taxes to the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) from 2004 to 2009,” she said.
Earlier, the House justice committee ordered the BIR to conduct a probe on Sereno’s tax payments, incomes, revenues and compliance.
As the committee, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, was deliberating on whether there was probable cause to impeach Sereno, it had been looking into Sereno’s possible tax evasion when she allegedly failed to declare P37 million in legal fees in her statements of assets liabilities and networth (SALN) and pay taxes.
But Deinla pointed out that during the years Sereno filed her income tax returns with the BIR, there was “no deficiency assessment notice from the BIR nor any question surrounding her income tax return filings.”
“This only means one thing: All her income tax filings when she was a private lawyer were accurate and proper. Tama, sakto at walang hokus-pokus,” she said.
The lawyer-spokesperson said Sereno’s camp was “confident” that the BIR investigation would prove that the Chief Justice had paid the corresponding taxes for the income she earned while in private law practice.
“Like any other income, these fees, after the payment of taxes, were gradually spent over time. The fees also went, in part, to the family’s tithes, offerings, living, medical, and emergency expenses over the course of five years. All assets and investments bought or acquired from the remainder of these fees were truthfully reflected in her SALNs when she became a member of the judiciary,” Deinla added.
Umali directed BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa to present the results of the investigation before the committee on Feb. 19.
The House justice panel aims to finish the deliberation on Sereno’s impeachment and submit it for plenary approval within February. /je