Vice President Leni Robredo took a swipe at her fellow presidential candidate, former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., for the latter’s failure to settle his family’s P203.819-billion estate tax debt to the government, saying it could be used for delivering social services to the needy.
The topic was brought up by Manila Mayor Isko Moreno during the first round of the presidential debate organized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday, March 19.
Without alluding to the former senator, Moreno lamented that a family could owe that much money to the government when it could be used to provide “ayuda (cash aid)” to farmers and drivers.
In a rare moment, Robredo, Senator Ping Lacson, and labor leader Leody de Guzman agreed that the debt should be collected from the Marcos family.
Marcos was absent at last night’s debate, as he was in previous debates.
“Sa akin (For me), it's just a lot about the kind of person that he is and how unqualified he is for the presidency. Kasi na-imagine mo ba na (Because can you imagine) somebody na (who is) aspiring to be president, napakalaki noong utang sa pamahalaan (owes the government so much)?,” Robredo said during a media interview after the debate.
“Hindi naman 'yun puwede (That shouldn’t be the case). Pero (But) he gets away with it dahil sa (because of) disinformation, dahil sa (because of) propaganda. So ito, ito hindi lang ito problema ko dahil kalaban ko siya, pero problema natin itong lahat (this is not just a problem because he is my rival, but this is a problem for all of us),” she added.
Marcos remains the survey frontrunner, getting 60 percent of survey respondents to say they will vote for him in the latest Pulse Asia survey. Robredo is a far second at 15 percent.
The Vice President, who won over Marcos in 2016, affirmed her earlier response to Moreno’s claim that the money could be spent on social services especially at a time when the government could not provide aid to drivers amid the rising fuel costs.
She hit at the proposal to give a measly P200 a month assistance to poor families and the arguments against the suspension of the excise tax that could lower the prices of fuel by as much as P10 per liter.
“Hindi ito fake news ha, sinasabi niya na fake news pero meron nang 'yung decision naging (This is not fake news—he’s saying it’s fake news—but there is—there is a decision that became) final and executory na. Kung masingil ito, 'di ang dami sa ating mga kababayan maiibsan 'yung kahirapan na pinagdadaanan (If we collect this, then a lot of our fellowmen will get relief from the difficulties they are going through),” Robredo said.
The issue stems from the P23.29 billion of estate taxes that the heirs of former President Ferdinand Marcos neglected to pay. With accrued interests, this has now ballooned to P203.819 billion.
In 1997, the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed a Court of Appeals (CA) ruling dismissing the Marcoses’ plea against a 1993 levy and sale on 11 Tacloban properties meant to settle the delinquent tax debt.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) also confirmed that it had written a demand letter to the Marcos heirs last December 2021 regarding their tax liabilities.
Under the law, the written demand has to be renewed every five years for the debt to be collectible.
Moreno earlier alleged that the Marcos estate tax debt would be waived if he wins the presidency.