President Benigno Aquino III cannot be subject to impeachment based on allegations of tax fraud involving the sale of a government property in Baguio City, a staunch critique of the chief executive said Wednesday.
Former Minority Floor Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman noted that Aquino is not liable for the anomalous sale of a property along Session Road, since the transaction happened in 1992, before the President took the helm of the executive branch in June 2010.
“It is a relic which should be consigned to the archives rather than exhumed as a possible ground for impeachment for President Aquino since it is bereft of legal and factual anchorage,” the lawmaker said in a statement.
The House minority earlier this week announced that they are considering endorsing a move to impeach the President over allegations by Danilo Lihaylihay, president of the Philippine Association of Revenue Informers Inc.
Lihaylihay accused Aquino and two other Cabinet officials of “massive tax evasion fraud” failing to remit taxes from the sale of a 3.4-hectare property to SM Investments.
Aquino executed the deed of absolute sale to the purchaser in September 2011 — a process that Lagman said “was only confirmatory of the legal transaction and mandated by law.”
The Albay representative advised his former colleagues in the House opposition “to choose more relevant and reasonable issues confronting the Aquino administration.”
“Responsibility and candor demand that non-issues should not be floated as serious concerns,” Lagman noted.
Lagman resigned last month as House minority leader after then-Deputy Minority Leader Danilo Suarez citing a term-sharing agreement two years ago challenged him for the post.
Suarez assumed the opposition leadership, and Lagman chose to become an independent congressman. — Andreo Calonzo/VS, GMA News
174 comments