Marcos Wants Estate Tax Final Settlement

President Marcos wants the multibillion-peso estate tax case against his family to be reopened, saying their side was not heard when the matter was being litigated in the courts as they were in exile in the US.

Marcos spoke on the tax case, which was among the top issues raised against him during the presidential campaign, when asked during an interview aired on newly launched ALLTV on Tuesday, Sept. 13, his 65th birthday.

“We are actually encouraging that this (case) finally be resolved because – I don’t want to make a legal opinion for which I am not qualified – but rather to say we were never allowed to argue because when this case came out, we were all in the United States,” the only son and namesake of the late strongman said.

“So when it was the time for us to answer, we had no chance to answer because we’re nakakulong (confined) and (in the) Air Force base in Hawaii,” he said.

“Now we are all here, open the case and let us argue it,” the Chief Executive said, adding they should have the chance to explain the things they should “have been able to say” from 1987 to 1989.

He said if the case is reopened, the Marcos family will ask for detailed accounting of their alleged ill-gotten or unassessed properties for a true valuation of what they owe the government, if there is any.

“It’s not clear what properties they say (we own),” he said in Filipino.

Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii in 1986 after the bloodless EDSA people power revolution which toppled the late dictator.

In 1997, the Supreme Court ordered the Marcos heirs to pay P23 billion in estate tax. The order became final and executory on March 9, 1999.

The Marcos estate tax assessment of P23 billion in 1991 has ballooned to an estimated P203 billion due to penalties and surcharges.

Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez, who was then serving as Marcos’ spokesman, had said that the P203-billion estate tax debt by the Marcoses was still “pending in court.”

While the Marcos camp admitted that the SC ruling on his family’s estate tax worth P23 billion is final and executory, they said the surcharges for the unsettled debt over the past years could still be subject to reconciliation.

Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio had insisted that the 1997 ruling of the high court on the Marcos estate tax case is “final and executory.”

In an interview in June, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Lilia Guillermo said the agency would comply with the court’s decision on the estate tax issue of the Marcos family and will stick to the agency’s mandate to collect.

“I have not seen any documents about it. If this is final and executory, then it is our mandate to collect; that is one of the mandates of BIR, collection enforcement,” Guillermo said.