“Worst kind of black propaganda.”

This was how retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio described the statement by former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s spokesman Vic Rodriguez, who said that the P203-billion estate tax debt by the Marcoses is still “pending in court.”

The former high magistrate blasted Marcos’ spokesman, citing the 1997 Supreme Court decision upholding a judgment ordering the Marcos heirs to pay P23 billion in taxes as “final and executory.”

With accrued interest, the debt already ballooned to some P203 billion after 25 years of the Marcoses refusing to follow the court’s decision.

“Alleging that the case is still pending without specifying the actual case details sounds like fake news and – if it turns out to be untrue – the worst kind of black propaganda,” Carpio said in a statement.

Also the lead convenor of opposition coalition 1Sambayan, Carpio stressed the importance of raising the issues surrounding the estate taxes of the former senator “because Marcos Jr. is running for the highest office.”

“The Filipino people cannot afford to have a president who is convicted of tax cases and has unpaid tax obligations, now worth over 200 billion pesos,” Carpio added.

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.

READ: Mayor Isko’s camp requests SC for certificate of finality on Marcoses’ P203-B tax debt

“In view of all the foregoing, we rule that the deficiency income tax assessments and estate tax assessment, are already final and (u)nappealable -and- the subsequent levy of real properties is a tax remedy resorted to by the government, sanctioned by Section 213 and 218 of the National Internal Revenue Code,” the decision stated.

Marcos Jr. was the petitioner in this case.

The issue stemmed from the P23.29 billion of estate taxes that the heirs of former President Ferdinand Marcos neglected to pay. The amount has increased to more than P203 billion because of accrued interests.