Bongbong Marcos spox on unpaid estate taxes: This is all about politics

Atty. Victor Rodriguez, chief of staff and spokesperson of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Screengrab from PTV

MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos family’s estate taxes liability issue is just being used to score political points for the upcoming elections against presidential candidate and former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., his spokesperson said Saturday.

To recall, it was the camp of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno who revealed that the Marcoses have yet to pay P203 billion in estate taxes. 

Moreno is running for president under the Aksyon Demokratiko party.

Moreno is now joined by other presidential contenders in urging the Marcos family to settle their tax liability.

“It’s not a coincidence that rivals of presidential frontrunner Bongbong Marcos are raising this matter in unison a few weeks before the elections; sadly, this is all about politics,” Marcos Jr. spokesperson Vic Rodriguez said in a statement.

Rodriguez also reiterated the claim that the tax case “has attained finality when the truth of the matter is, it is still pending in court and the ownership of the properties in litigation has yet to be settled.”

“That being the case, the fair and just tax base to be used in computing the estate tax cannot yet be established with finality,” Rodriguez added.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), however said that 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.”

BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay confirmed that they have sent a written demand to the Marcos heirs last December 2021 with regards to their unpaid tax liability.

/MUF