FILE PHOTO: Manila City Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso. INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — Presidential contender and Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso on Tuesday said he would sell the illegally acquired assets like pieces of jewelry and paintings and ensure the collection of the P203 billion unpaid estate tax of the Marcos family if he wins the presidency.
“Maaari siyang ipatupad, and we guarantee you, maipapatupad ‘yon dahil ‘yun po ay batas. What matters most ay makokolekta ‘yun, dahil marami pa naman silang pag-aari na maaari naman nating makuhanan at mapunan ‘yung para sa estado,” Moreno said during TV5’s Serve the Nation presidential interviews.
(It can be enforced, and we guarantee you, it can be enforced because that is the law. What matters most is that they can be collected, because they still have a lot of property that we can get and fill for the state.)
“Kung maaalala niyo, may mga diyamante, mga assets na nakuha sa kanila. Natutulog po sa Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Picasso USD 200 million sa mundo ‘yan, mahal na mahal ‘yung mg paintings, Monet, na nakolekta na ng gobyerno. Ito tangan-tangan natin, pwede naman nating isalba o ibenta na. kasi there is no use of that na sa buhay ng tao kung nandi-dyan lang ‘yan sa vault ng ating gobyerno,” Moreno further explained.
(If you remember, there were diamonds, assets taken from them. Sleeping at the Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP). Picasso USD 200 million in the world, the paintings, Monet, that the government has already collected are very expensive. These are in the hands of the government that we can salvage or sell because there is no use of that in people’s lives if those will just stay inside the government’s vault.)
In a separate statement, Moreno’s camp cited a report from Christie’s and Sotheby’s in November 2015 and said the illegally obtained jewelry collection of the Marcoses that are stored in a vault at the BSP amounts to at least P1 billion.
Aside from the jewelry collection, more than a hundred missing artworks by artists such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Pierre Bonnard, and Michelangelo are yet to be recovered, according to Moreno’s camp.
Moreno’s Aksyon Demokratiko party has sought clarification on the status of the P203 billion unpaid estate tax of the Marcoses as the camp of presidential bet Ferdinand Marcos Jr. claimed it is not being settled yet because the involved properties are still under litigation.
But the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) “already executed its final assessment” on the involved properties as early as 1993 and that “as early as 1997, the judgment on the tax case had become final and executory” – belying the claims of Marcos Jr.’s camp.
The BIR, for its part, said it had sent another written demand to the Marcos family in December 2021 to pay their P203 billion estate tax liability.
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