Capitalizing the MWF

Is it true that the estate of the Marcoses had been adjudged to pay the Philippine government taxes to the tune of P200 billion plus? And that this judicial decision had long become final? I have to ask these questions again because in the months leading to the presidential elections of May 2022, this issue was among the worst campaign propaganda leveled against then candidate and later President BBM. The amount mentioned (alleged principal charges and supposed interests and penalties) was incredibly huge. I have not known of any one person or family that owes the government this big a tax liability.

Worse than the mind-boggling amount of money reportedly owed by the Marcoses to the government, there was this angle of moral turpitude. According to the internet the phrase moral turpitude “describes wicked, deviant behavior constituting an immoral, unethical, or unjust departure from ordinary social standards such that it would shock a community.” What, a person running for president of the country is accused of an act involving moral turpitude! I could only so explain to myself the issue in utter disbelief. It was, as it still is, admittedly unthinkable for any one person saddled with moral turpitude issue to aspire for a government position, let alone the presidency.

Almost every Filipino was willing to concede that the combined Marcos assets could easily pay what they owed the government, if they wanted to. Even then, no one of the Marcoses, from matriarch Imeldific to Imee, Irene ang Bongbong attempted to meet the issue head-on. None of them cared to deny categorically their tax liability. Indeed, I heard no Marcos facing the public to say that there was no court ruling condemning their family to pay such tax indebtedness. So, their reported refusal to pay hinged on moral turpitude. To me, (and perhaps, no one else shares this sentiment) the silence of the Marcoses demonstrated their manifest disrespect for the majesty of the legal order.

I need to ask again the questions I raised in my opening statement in the light of the fact that the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. seems to be rushing the passage of this draconian piece of legislation called Maharlika Wealth Fund. By the way, I recall that an infamous painting portraying Pres. Ferdie and Madame Imelda captioned the then president as “Maharlika.” This portrait became the cover of the book Conjugal Dictatorship, authored by Primitivo Mijares. The use of the very word Maharlika is chilling.

From where I sit, the opposition to the Maharlika Wealth Fund is growing in unprecedented numbers. A taxi driver and a fellow lawyer discussed the MWF from their diverse social and economic stations. Yet, they assumed a common stand opposing this Marcos baby. In another setting, both an unlettered farmer and a CPA saw evil in this MWF. The developing objections are in dizzying speed such that I can offer a bold analogy. If the assassination of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. at the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983, awakened the Filipino nation to rise against the martial law regime of Marcos Sr., any attempt of Marcos Jr., to push the MWF will marshall our people into a collective opposition not unlike the wave the death of Ninoy created.

True to the off tangent nature of this column, let me hazard a suggestion. If President Marcos Jr. really wants to have the Maharlika Wealth Fund bill quickly passed, he still has an ace of a card to play. The president should not touch the GSIS and SSS money. It is clear from the laws creating the GSIS and SSS that we get a portion of our monthly earnings to stave off our future hardships. We regularly set aside monthly contributions for our future needs. So, to capitalize the Maharlika Wealth Fund, let the Marcoses pay to the government their reported P200 billion plus tax obligation. Thru the use of their brilliant vassals in the legislature, they can pound on the legislative anvil a law making the Marcos tax payment as the main source of capital for the wealth fund. But I still cannot appease our digital operator who quipped, “mangawat pa man gani, mobayad na ba hinuon!”