DOJ chief’s old law firm handled Marcos tax case

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra. INQUIRER.net file photo / MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed on Thursday that his former law firm handled a tax case involving the estate of former President Ferdinand Marcos, but could not verify if the government indeed levied 30 properties as payment for controversial tax arrears.

“Yes, I remember that, at one time, our law firm represented the Marcoses in a tax case in the early 1990s,” Guevarra replied to reporters’ queries, referring to his former law firm—De Borja, Medialdea, Ata, Bello, Guevarra and Serapio Law Office.

Guevarra said the law firm got the case through lawyer Louise Araneta-Marcos, the wife of presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who worked with them as an associate after returning from New York.

Lawyer-client privilege

“We handled the case only for a while. When [Araneta-Marcos] left our firm, we also stopped representing the Marcoses,” he said.

But because of lawyer-client privilege, Guevarra could not confirm whether the law firm indeed received a notice of tax assessment, as claimed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

The BIR made the claim in response to a query of a political rival of Marcos Jr. and did not provide further details about the case and there has been no public verification of the claims of both sides.

“Even if I wanted to verify, the case records are not with our former law firm anymore,” Guevarra said, explaining that the law firm’s supervising partner, Loreta Ata, passed away several years ago and he could only presume that the case folders were returned to the Marcoses.

“Since we have no personal knowledge as to what happened to the case after we turned it over to the client, we would rather not comment,” Guevarra added.

On Thursday, Marcos Jr.’s campaign spokesperson, lawyer Victor Rodriguez, claimed that the government had levied 30 properties as payment for the supposed tax liabilities. Without providing key details, Rodriguez argued that former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio was only politicking when he mentioned the 1997 ruling on the tax case of the Marcos estate without mentioning developments after 1997.

RELATED STORY:
Marcos estate docked for taxes, lawyer says

BIR should impose payment of taxes, file criminal raps vs Marcoses — Carpio