BIR chief willing to testify in Corona trial

Tacloban City — Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares said she has yet to receive the summons for her to appear at the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“I have not received any summon or subpoena. All the information that I might be required to testify before the Senate impeachment tribunal are all in the media,” Henares said yesterday.

Henares was in Tacloban City to witness the inauguration of the records and multipurpose building of the regional office of the BIR.

Henares, however, said that once she received a summons for her to testify before the tribunal, she has to honor it.

“Otherwise, I will be cited for contempt,” Henares said.

The prosecution team has asked that Henares, along with nine others, testify at the impeachment trial of Corona on his income tax returns and his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

In a six-page request for the issuance of subpoena filed Monday, the prosecution team also requested Jacinto-Henares to bring with her pertinent documents pertaining to the annual ITR filed by Corona and wife, Cristina (from 1992 to 2010); their daughter Carla Corona-Castillo and husband Constantino Castillo III (from 2000 to 2010); and son Francis and wife Charina (from 2005 to 2010).

Meanwhile, Leyte Vice Gov. Mimietta Bagulaya, secretary-general of the Vice Governors League of the Philippines, said that the impeachment trial of the Chief Justice could strain the relationship among the three branches of the government.

Bagulaya said the impeachment could be divisive, adding that some members of Congress have claimed that their colleagues signed the articles of impeachment without reading these. /INQUIRER