Isko Moreno eyes selling Marcos assets to cover P203-billion unpaid estate tax

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno on Tuesday said he would make sure that the government would be able to collect the P203 billion in estate tax that the Marcoses are said to owe the country.

Moreno so remarled when asked what assurance he could give so that he could fulfill his promise to collect the P203 billion estate tax.

“Maari siyang ipatupad, and we guarantee you, maipapatupad yun dahil yun po ay batas," Moreno said.

"What matters most ay makokolekta yun, dahil marami pa naman silang pag-aari na maari naman nating makuhanan at mapunan yung para sa estado,” he added.

(We guarantee you, it can be enforced because that is the law. What matters most is that it can be collected, because they still have a lot of property that we can get and fill for the state.)

“Kung maaalala niyo, may mga diyamante, mga assets na nakuha sa kanila. Natutulog po sa Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Picasso USD 200 million sa mundo yan, mahal na mahal ‘yung mga paintings, Monet, na nakolekta na ng gobyerno," Moreno said.

"Ito tangan-tanga natin, pwede naman nating isalba o ibenta na. kasi there is no use of that na sa buhay ng tao kung nandi-dyan lang yan sa vault ng ating gobyerno,” he added.

(If you can remember, there are diamonds and assets taken from them. It is just lying at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Picasso’s paintings are at USD 200 million, even the paintings of Monet are expensive that have been collected by the government. We can save or sell these. because there is no use of that in human life if it is just there in the vault of our government.)

In 1997, the Supreme Court affirmed a Court of Appeals ruling that declared the Marcoses’ estate to have a tax deficiency of P23 billion but ballooned to P203 billion due to interests and penalties 20 years later.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has said that it sent presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. a written demand to settle their estate tax liabilities.

Moreno has said that while the current BIR commissioner did his job last December, there was a possibility that the P203 billion tax liability of the Marcos heirs would not be collected if another Marcos became president. —NB, GMA News