Tribunal asked to clarify Marcos estate tax case

A RIVAL political party has questioned the Supreme Court to issue a “certificate of finality” on a decades-outdated lawsuit that upheld the government’s estate and cash flow tax assessments on the heirs of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos.

In a letter to the tribunal’s deputy clerk of courtroom, Aksyon Demokratiko Chairman Ernesto M. Ramel, Jr. sought the certification to build that the circumstance had prolonged been settled and could now be enforced, opposite to the claim of the Marcos family.

“The purpose of the requested certification of finality is to set up the previously mentioned cited scenario is in simple fact remaining and executory and had been entered in the e-book of judgments,” he stated. Aksyon Demokratiko is the party of Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko” M. Domagoso, who is running for president this calendar year.

He cited a March 3 assertion by Victor D. Rodriguez, law firm of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. that the tax scenario had not been resolved with finality. The dictator’s namesake and only son is the leading contender for president, centered on numerous feeling polls.

Mr. Rodriguez did not right away reply to a Viber concept searching for comment.

Mr. Ramel before stated the P23-billion estate tax experienced ballooned to P203.8 billion due to passions and penalties just after the Marcos loved ones refused to pay out it.

He independently requested the Bureau of Inside Profits and Presidential Commission on Excellent Federal government (PCGG) this thirty day period to clarify no matter whether the Marcos heirs had paid the taxes.

Mr. Marcos on March 16 cited “fake news” bordering their unsettled estate taxes. “Let’s leave it to the lawyers to talk about it due to the fact the so-known as details that they quotation are not specifics at all,” he advised a news briefing. “Whatever the court docket orders me to do, I will do.”

This contradicted what the tax company and PCGG mentioned in reply to Aksyon Demokratiko.

“The Bureau of Interior Earnings did send a written need letter to the Marcos heirs on Dec. 2, 2021 concerning their tax liabilities,” Internal Income Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay explained in a letter to Aksyon Demokratiko on March 14.

PCGG, the company tasked to recover sick-gotten prosperity of the dictator and his cronies, in a individual letter stated the tax agency in 1991 assessed the estate of Ferdinand Marcos P23.29 billion in estate taxes, P184.16 million in unpaid revenue taxes of Mr. Marcos and his wife Imelda for 1985 and 1986 and P20,410 in unpaid cash flow taxes from the dictator for 1982 to 1985.   

In 1993, BIR levied and offered 11 Marcos properties in Tacloban right after the family members unsuccessful to file an administrative protest. The plenty were awarded to the point out in the absence of bidders, PCGG explained.   

The Supreme Court docket in 1997 denied a plea by Marcos, Jr. to void the levies as it dominated the tax assessments had turn out to be ultimate and unappealable.   

Mr. Ramel in a different assertion warned that the personal debt could get erased if the tax company fails to gather the tax by June 30, in scenario Mr. Marcos wins the election.   

“The P203 billion that belongs to the Filipino folks will vanish like a bubble if Marcos, Jr. lucks out,” he stated in Filipino.

Mr. Ramel on Sunday slammed Mr. Marcos’s spokesman for saying that his rivals have been making use of the tax problem to rating political details for the May well 9 elections.

Meanwhile, opposition coalition 1Sambayan claimed Mr. Rodriguez’s declare final week that the Marcos family’s estate tax liability is still pending in courtroom is “the worst sort of propaganda.”

“With all owing regard to Mr. Rodriguez, there is no pending case,” it stated in a statement. “Alleging that the situation is nonetheless pending without specifying the true case information sounds like bogus news and — if it turns out to be untrue — the worst kind of black propaganda.”

It reported Filipinos could not manage to have a president who experienced been convicted for tax evasion.

The dictator stole as a lot as $10 billion (P521 billion) from the Filipino people today, in accordance to federal government estimates, earning him a Guinness Planet Record for the “greatest theft of a authorities.” PCGG has recovered about P171 billion.

Mr. Domagoso before vowed to use the tax payment to enable drivers, farmers and jobless Filipinos if he gets president. — Jaspearl Emerald G. Tan and Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza