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MANILA, Philippines - The government lost two cases, worth P59.7-million, against importers who were allegedly involved in a multi-billion peso tax credit scam.
The Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of the two cases, which were filed by the Bureau of Customs, due to the failure of the Office of the Solicitor General to attend hearings.
The SC reversed a 2008 Court of Appeals ruling, which had reversed an RTC ruling dismissing the cases in July 2006.
The high court said the RTC was right in dismissing the case on a technicality.
"Despite several opportunities granted by the Manila RTC to the government lawyers, they repeatedly failed to attend the pre-trial hearings. In this jurisdiction, pre-trial is way more than simple marking of evidence. Hence, it should not be ignored or neglected, as the government lawyers had," it said.
The CA, it noted, erred in entertaining the petition for certiorari filed by the government.
"Under the rules of court, a dismissal due to failure to appear at the pre-trial has the same effect as a judgment on the substance of the case. The proper procedure therefore would have been to file an ordinary appeal to the CA, instead of resorting to extraordinary writ of certiorari," the high court said.
While the cases should be dismissed, the SC said the government may re-file them in court considering the importance of the tax cases.
In the first case, the BOC sought to collect over P6 million in taxes from Chiat Sing Cardboard, Filstar Textile Corp. and Faustino and Gloria Chingkoe.
In the second case, the BOC also went after Filstar Textile Corp., the Chingkoe couple, Dominador Garcia, Amalia Anunciacion, Jose Pena, Grace Chingkoe and Napoleon Viray, to collect P53 million in taxes.
The BOC accused them of using fraudulent tax credit certificates to pay customs duties and taxes.
Chingkoe is facing other cases for his alleged involvement in the tax credit scam.
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