Presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo Lacson during a press conference in Zamboanga City. Photo from Lacson-Sotto media bureau
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo Lacson on Thursday stressed the need to collect the estate tax of the Marcos family estimated at P203 billion, raising concern that it may balloon to a trillion if it remains unsettled.
“Dapat singilin kundi lalaki pa nang lalaki yan baka umabot pa ng trilyon ‘yan. Remember, it started at P23 billion, yun ang basic na estate tax na dapat bayaran. In the course of time, nagkaroon ng surcharges, nagkaroon ng penalties, umabot na ng P203 billion,” Lacson told reporters in a press conference in Zamboanga del Norte when asked on the matter.
(It should be collected because it may balloon to a trillion if not. Remember, it started at P23 billion, that’s the basic estate tax due. In the course of time, there were surcharges, penalties and it reached P203 billion.)
He then backed President Rodrigo Duterte in calling out the BIR for its supposed failure to collect estate taxes, which he said could have helped the cash-strapped government bankroll some of its programs.
“I fully support the call of the President na tawagin yung BIR to collect kasi P203 billion can do so many things para sa ating mga kababayan, para sa ating bansa [for Filipinos, for our country],” Lacson went on.
“Ang laki ng utang natin. Ang laki ng gastusin natin sa pandemic [We have a lot of debt. We spent a lot in our pandemic response]. Well, P203 billion will help our countrymen a lot,” he added.
Lacson is running for president in the 2022 polls. Among his fellow contenders is former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
It was in early March that the party of another presidential candidate, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, called for the urgent payment of the unpaid estate tax.
The Marcos camp, meanwhile, has maintained that the estate tax of the Marcos family remains unsettled since the properties linked to the case are still under litigation.
The former senator’s spokesperson, Atty. Vic Rodriguez, also previously said that the issue about the Marcoses’ estate tax is “all about politics.”
The Presidential Commission on Good Government, however, said the 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.”
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