By: Neil Arwin Mercado – Reporter /INQUIRER.net /January 13, 2022
MANILA, Philippines — The P328 billion worth of “ill-gotten” wealth and unpaid taxes from the Marcos family may no longer be recovered if former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. gets elected as president, former Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio said Thursday.
During the 1Sambayan TAPATan media forum, Carpio said Marcos Jr. may even abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) which is primarily tasked to recover ill-gotten wealth accumulated by former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., his family, relatives, and subordinates.
The PCGG, created by Executive Order No. 1, the first edict that the late Corazon Aquino signed shortly after assuming power after People Power 1, is still trying to recover more than P125 billion worth of Marcos assets—which were allegedly part of the family’s ill-gotten wealth.
“That’s really the problem. If Bongbong Marcos becomes president, I do not expect the P125 billion to be recovered anymore. He’ll probably abolish the PCGG,” Carpio said.
Aside from this, Carpio said the Marcos family also owes the government P203 billion in estate tax.
“There’s a bigger problem because he owes the government P203 billion as of now for the estate tax. He has been ordered by the court to pay, he refuses to pay up to now,” Carpio said.
“Nobody seems to hold him into account for that. If he becomes president, lalo na (all the more). Goodbye na ‘yan (That’s a goodbye). That P203 billion, if you do not collect that in five years, you do not even send a demand letter that prescribes, hindi mo na makolekta yan (you can no longer collect that),” he added.
Atty. Vic Rodriguez, chief of staff and spokesperson of Marcos Jr., refused to respond to Carpio’s remark saying it is “purely speculative.” He also described Carpio as someone who “espouses divisiveness.”
“We do not respond to a purely speculative scenario concocted by the same man who espouses divisiveness instead of national unity and [has] wrongly led equally righteous groups and individuals like him, in filing the numerous nuisance petitions against presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos,” Rodriguez said in a text message to INQUIRER.net.
“His signature ‘yellow political tirades’ purposely meant to foment intrigue such as this are better left ignored,” he added.