PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. wants to reopen the cases which made his family liable for unpaid estate tax, estimated by some quarters as having supposedly ballooned to P203 billion as a result of penalties.
“Open the case and let us argue it so that all of the things that we should have been able to say in 1987, 1988, 1989 that we were not able to say [we will be able to disclose],” Marcos said during an exclusive interview with actress Toni Gonzaga on Tuesday.
He said they were not able present their side, when the cases were pending in local courts, since, he said, they were detained in a United States airbase in Hawaii at that time.
“We were never allowed to argue because when this case came out we were in the United States. So when it was time for us to answer we had no chance to answer [it],” Marcos said.
If given the chance to defend themselves again, Marcos said they will look into the properties covered in the said cases.
“It was not clear which properties were involved,” Marcos said.
Last March, it was reported that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) already sent a demand letter to the Marcoses to settle the unpaid taxes, which stemmed from a 1994 Court of Appeals decision.
The President elevated the case to the Supreme Court to reverse the ruling of the CA. In 1997, the High Court decided to junk his petition.
Image credits: Robinson Niñal/Office of the Press Secretary