Fact check: Marcos Jr. claims family 'wasn't given a chance to respond' to estate tax case
MANILA, Philippines — Despite the Supreme Court ruling his family's tax dues final and executory, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said they intend to ask for a more detailed accounting of properties covered by the estate tax they owe.
CLAIM: Marcos said his family was never given a chance to respond in its defense on the P203-billion estate tax owed to the government because they were still in exile in Hawaii when it was in court.
RATING: This is false.
FACTS: The Supreme Court said that notices of warrants of distraint and levy of sale were furnished to Marcos' office when he was already a congressman in the Philippines in 1993.
Marcos Jr. himself was the petitioner in a case before the Court of Appeals.
What he said
In an interview with vlogger and celebrity Toni Gonzaga aired over ALLTV, the president said that he wants the estate tax case against his family reopened, claiming their side was not heard because they were still in exile in the US at the time.
"Well, we are actually encouraging that this finally be resolved because I don’t want to make a legal opinion for which I am not qualified. But rather to say that in our — we were never allowed to argue because when this case came out, we were all in the United States," Marcos said.
"When it was the time for us to answer, we had no chance to answer because we were [stuck] in Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. Now we are all here, open the case and let us argue it. So that all of the things that we should have been able to say in 1987, ’88, ’89 that we were not able to say."
What he left out
In 1991, the Marcoses returned to the Philippines after the death of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1989.
According to the high court, Marcos was already a congressman representing the second district of Ilocos Norte at the Batasang Pambansa, where notices of warrants of distraint and levy of sale were sent.
In 1997, the Supreme Court affirmed the 1994 decision of the Court of Appeals dismissing Marcos' petition over the estate tax dues. The Supreme Court adopted the facts found by the appellate court, which it called "undisputed," including that:
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On February 22, 1993, the BIR Commissioner issued 22 notices of levy on real property against certain parcels of land owned by the Marcoses — to satisfy the alleged estate tax and deficiency income taxes of Spouses Marcos.
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On May 20, 1993, four more Notices of Levy on real property were issued for the purpose of satisfying the deficiency income taxes.
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On May 26, 1993, additional four (4) notices of Levy on real property were again issued. The foregoing tax remedies were resorted to pursuant to Sections 205 and 213 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC).
The court's ruling reads:
The foregoing notwithstanding, the record shows that notices of warrants of distraint and levy of sale were furnished the counsel of petitioner on April 7, 1993, and June 10, 1993, and the petitioner himself on April 12, 1993 at his office at the Batasang Pambansa. We cannot therefore, countenance petitioner's insistence that he was denied due process. Where there was an opportunity to raise objections to government action, and such opportunity was disregarded, for no justifiable reason, the party claiming oppression then becomes the oppressor of the orderly functions of government. He who comes to court must come with clean hands. Otherwise, he not only taints his name, but ridicules the very structure of established authority.
Essential context
The issue of the estate tax owed by the Marcos family made headlines during the campaign period in the run-up to the 2022 elections after candidates raised the issue, claiming they would use the reclaimed tax as ayuda amid the pandemic.
At the time, Marcos' camp responded by saying that the final collection of the tax was put on hold because it was unclear how much they should pay.
But the Presidential Commission on Good Government said that a Special Audit Tax Team from the Bureau of Internal Revenue determined the following tax liabilities owed by the Marcos family in 1991:
- Deficiency Estate Tax Assessment against the Estate of Ferdinand Marcos in the amount of P23,293,607,638.
- Deficiency Income Tax Assessments against Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos in the aggregate amount of P184,159,289.70 for the years 1985 to 1986
- Deficiency Income Tax Assessment against Ferdinand Marcos Jr [for the years] 1982 to 1985 in the aggregate amount of P20,410.
Marcos filed a petition against this before the Court of Appeals, which dismissed the petition on June 5, 1999 on the ground that the estate tax assessment of BIR — amounting to P23,293,607,638 — had already become final and unappealable.
"As early as 1993, BIR already executed its final assessment when it levied and sold 11 real properties in Tacloban City, and, as early as 1997, the judgment on the tax case had become final and executory," the PCGG said then.
Earlier, Lilia Guillermo, then-incoming chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, said that her bureau will collect Marcoses’ estate taxes as long as she has the correct figures.
READ: Incoming BIR chief says will collect Marcos family's estate tax
Why does this matter?
Through five administrations, the Marcos family has not paid its estate tax despite the 1997 Supreme Court ruling. The assessment of P23 billion in 1991 has ballooned to an estimated P203 billion after penalties and surcharges.
Marcos' interview with the celebrity was carried on government channels. A transcript of the interview is available on the official website of the Office of the Press Secretary.
The original video posted on the Toni Gonzaga Studio channel on YouTube — which has over 6.6 million subscribers — has garnered nearly 1.2 million views.
According to CrowdTangle, a social media monitoring tool, the video has also been shared over 9,000 times on Facebook and garnered 14,000 reactions as of press time.
It's also been tweeted over a hundred times — including by state-run media Philippine News Agency — to a total of 344,000 followers collectively.
READ: Carpio says gov't can't collect P203-billion estate tax if Marcos wins presidency
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