Lito Banayo, campaign manager of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno. INQUIRER file photo / RAFFY LERMA
MANILA, Philippines — The camp of Presidential candidate Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” on Wednesday urged Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez to order the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to collect P203 billion tax liabilities of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and his family.
On Tuesday, Moreno campaign strategist Lito Banayo said the unpaid estate taxes amounting to P203.819 billion could be used to provide P48,833.33 annual allowance or P4,000 monthly assistance to the 4.2 million workers who lost their jobs for a year.
“[N]gayong nagkakandahirap-hirap tayo na humahanap ng pera para i-ayuda, siguro naman ang DOF utusan na talaga ang BIR na singilin ang P203 billion na ito para maitulong na ayuda sa mga nawalan ng trabaho at sa transport sector na naghihirap dahil dito sa krisis na ating hinaharap,” Banayo said in a press briefing at the headquarters of Aksyon Demokratiko in Intramuros, Manila.
(Now that the government is having a hard time finding money for aid, well the DOF could order BIR to retrieve this P203 billion to be used as cash assistance for those who lose their jobs and to the transport sectors that are suffering because of the crisis we are experiencing.)
Banayo also said there are different ways to collect the huge debt incurred by the Marcos family, pointing to the paintings owned by former first lady Imelda Marcos.
The campaign manager pointed out that the paintings owned by the Marcos matriarch — like those of Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, and Alfred Sisley — “will fetch about $200 million for a single painting.”
“Bakit hindi puntahan ng BIR or ng Presidential Commision on Good Government or ng gobyerno yung condominium ng mga ito kung saan nakasabit hanggang ngayon si Picasso, si Sisley, si Monet,” Banayo said.
(Why don’t the BIR and the Presidential Commission on Good Government and the government visit their condominium where paintings of Picasso, Sisley, and Monet are still hanging until today?)
If elected, Moreno also said earlier Tuesday that he would sell the massive ill-gotten jewelry collection of the Marcos matriarch as the government tries to collect the P203 billion the family owed to the state.
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