Former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio. (File photo by EDWIN BACASMAS / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — The ball is now in the hands of the taxman.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) should file a criminal case against presidential aspirant Ferdinand Marcos Jr., a convicted tax evader, and his mother, Imelda Marcos, for their refusal to pay over P203 billion in estate tax, retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Monday.
Carpio said the son of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his widow should settle the tax deficiency being the legal “co-administrators” of the Marcos estate.
He had earlier dismissed the claim of the Marcos family that the case was still pending in court, saying the tax levied by the BIR was “already final, executory and unappealable.”
“[The] best legal recourse [to make them pay the estate tax] is to file a criminal case,” Carpio told the Inquirer.
He said the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) and its implementing rules “clearly … impose upon the administrator of the estate the primary obligation to pay the estate tax.”
10-year jail term
Marcos Jr. and his mother were “legally and primarily mandated by law” to settle the estate tax before any of the heirs, including themselves, could “receive a single centavo from the Marcos estate,” Carpio added.
He pointed out that Section 255 of the NIRC states that “any person … who willfully fails to pay such tax,” should pay a fine of at least P10,000 and serve up to 10 years in prison.
“In short, Marcos Jr. and Imelda Marcos can be charged criminally by the BIR and the DOJ (Department of Justice) … for willful refusal to pay the estate tax of the Marcos estate,” the retired justice said.
“The refusal to pay the estate tax is willful because almost a quarter of a century has passed since the estate tax was declared final and executory by the Supreme Court and still [they] have refused to pay a single centavo of the estate tax,” he said.
Meanwhile, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso’s Aksyon Demokratiko party has pressed the Supreme Court to certify the finality of its 1997 ruling on the unpaid tax liabilities of the heirs of the late dictator, including his son and namesake.
In a March 21 letter made public on Monday, Aksyon’s chair Ernest Ramel Jr. wrote the high court requesting a “certificate of finality” on its June 5, 1997, decision, which affirmed the Court of Appeals’ judgment dismissing the Marcos heirs’ petition challenging the delinquent tax debt amounting to P23 billion.
“The purpose of the requested certificate of finality is to establish that the above-cited case is in fact final and executory and/or entered in the book of entries of judgments,” Ramel said in the letter.
The chair of Domagoso’s party said the request was prompted by a March 3 statement posted on Facebook by lawyer Vic Rodriguez, chief of staff and spokesperson for Marcos, claiming that the tax case was “not yet final and executory.”
Ramel noted that Aksyon’s standard-bearer had “vowed to utilize the P203-billion Marcos estate tax subject of the above-cited case as ayuda (aid) for millions of Filipinos affected by pandemic.”