Isko party asks Supreme Court for 'certificate of finality' on Marcos family's estate tax dues
MANILA, Philippines — Aksyon Demokratiko, the political party of presidential aspirant Isko Moreno, has asked the Supreme Court for a “certificate of finality” on the High Court’s 1997 decision on the unpaid P203 billion estate tax owed by the Marcos family.
In a letter addressed to lawyer Basilia Ringol, Deputy Clerk of Court and Chief of Office of the Supreme Court, Aksyon Demokratiko chairman Ernesto Ramel specifically requested a certificate of finality on the case.
Ramel’s letter to the SC was prompted by a Facebook post by lawyer Vic Rodriguez, chief of staff and spokesman of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who claimed that the above-cited case is “not yet final and executory.”
“The purpose of the requested Certificate of Finality is to establish that the above-cited case is in fact final and executory and/or entered in the book of entries of judgments,” Ramel said in his letter dated March 21 which was received on March 22 by the office of Ringol.
Moreno's camp has been on the offensive against fellow presidential bet Marcos in recent months with its letters to government agencies highlighting the family's unpaid taxes. Moreno has vowed to distribute the P203-billion tax as ayuda for families affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
At the Comelec Presidential Debates last weekend, other candidates were also in agreement that the government should be going after the family of the late ousted dictator who passed away in 1989 after amassing considerable wealth by plundering government coffers during his corruption-riddled Martial Law regime.
Ramel slammed the spokesman of Marcos Jr. for claiming that the family’s estate taxes liability issue is just being used to score political points for the upcoming elections against the son and namesake of the dictator and former president.
“Politics? Stop the rotation and deception, Atty. Vic Rodriguez. All the truth is in front of you and Marcos Jr. Your allegation that this is just politics is full of arrogance,” Ramel said in Filipino.
Ramel warned that should the BIR, which is under the administrative control of the Department of Finance, failed to collect the P203 billion estate tax before June 30, 2022, there is a possibility that the debt "will definitely just disappear like a bubble" if another Marcos gets to Malacanang on July 1.
Rodriguez has reiterated his claim that the tax case “is still pending in court and the ownership of the properties in litigation has yet to be settled.“
"That being the case, the fair and just tax base to be used in computing the estate tax cannot yet be established with finality,” he said.
In a series of letters to Aksyon Demokratiko, the Presidential Commission on Good Government — the agency created to recover ill-gotten wealth from the Marcoses and their cronies — said that the BIR “already executed its final assessment” on the involved properties as early as 1993 and that “as early as 1997, the judgment on the tax case had become final and executory” based on the June 5, 1997 Supreme Court decision.
BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay, replying to a letter sent by Ramel, confirmed that they sent a written demand to the Marcos heirs last Dec. 2, 2021 with regards to their unpaid tax liability.
— Franco Luna
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