Marcos estate docked for taxes, lawyer says

Former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — The camp of presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. insists that the case related to his family’s unpaid P203-billion estate tax remains pending in court.

Lawyer Victor Rodriguez issued the statement on Tuesday night as he accused retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio of spreading “falsehood, lies, hatred and black propaganda.”

Carpio earlier rejected the claims of unnamed Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) officials that the Marcos heirs were not legally bound to settle their unpaid estate tax.

Under Section 91 of the National Internal Revenue Code, the estate tax “shall be paid by the executor or administrator before delivery to any beneficiary of his distributive share of the estate,” Carpio said.

But for Rodriguez, “our political adversary is again painting the town yellow with his usual falsehood, lies, hatred and black propaganda.”

He said that in G.R. No. 120880, critics of the Marcos family omitted to mention that the BIR had issued 30 notices of levy, which resorted to public sale of levied properties and there being no bidder, “lots subject of the public sale [were] declared forfeited in favor of the government in satisfaction of the estate tax due.”

“As held in this case by the Supreme Court, in the case of notices of levy issued to satisfy the delinquent estate tax, ‘the delinquent taxpayer is the estate of the decedent, and not necessarily, and exclusively Bongbong Marcos as heir of the deceased,’” he added.

Marcos Jr. is co-administrator of his late father’s estate, the former president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Supreme Court record showed that the decision on the Marcos estate tax became “final and executory” on March 9, 1999.

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