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President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos discussed at length his fiscal policy during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 25, calling for proper tax administration to raise revenues for the government’s coffers.
His family’s unpaid estate taxes was the elephant in the room, however.
“That is a challenge for the government on how to address that particular issue… It’s not easy [that] you have a President who is going to be involved in that particular matter,” former NEDA Sec. Ernesto Pernia previously said to PCIJ.
The government aims to raise government revenues through proper tax administration and new tax reforms. Political Science Professor Maria Ela Atienza said the President’s unpaid tax issue will remain a sore point. “People would definitely ask: Presidente lang di pwedeng magbayad?”, she said.
Since the campaign season, Marcos had shied away from answering question about his family’s unpaid estate taxes. In 1997, the Supreme Court ordered the Marcos heirs to pay P23 billion in estate tax. Experts say that amount is now worth P203 billion after penalties and interests are accounted for. Marcos has not made any statement about the issue. Marcos has shied away from discussing his family’s pending corruption cases, too.
Even in his first SONA, which lasted at least 70 minutes, the President did not mention the word “corruption”. There was also no mention of seeking transparency or accountability from government offices previously hounded with corruption issues such as the Bureau of Customs. Marcos just said the office will “promote streamlined processes” through “information and communications technology”.
For Ateneo School of Government Dean Randy Tuaño, the President’s SONA “ticked a lot of boxes,” but he had hoped strategies for greater citizen participation were also addressed. “It would have been good… if he could also have addressed efforts that would strengthen transparency and accountability in governance and strengthen anti-corruption efforts and strengthen competition efforts,” he said in an email to PCIJ.
The President’s choice not to mention corruption was telling, as the Marcos Jr.’s family legacy is hounded by one of the worst corruption cases ever recorded in history. The family plundered billions of dollars in public funds. The Presidential Commission on Good Government, the agency mandated to recover all ill-gotten wealth accumulated by the president’s father, his family and associates, in the Philippines or abroad, has yet to retrieve all such assets.
Atienza previously said the President’s continuous refusal to speak about any of their family’s corruption cases or his father’s wrongdoings, is “worrying”.
“It’s worrying that the Marcos family is vocal that they are for the restoration of the Marcos name. And there are now people in government who are not champions of transparency and accountability. You have people [in government] who are identified with the Martial Law; you have people who were with President Duterte that practiced red-tagging, and had a history in not giving critics their due,” she said. “It’s now up to people, to organizations, to media, to fact-checkers, to continue demanding accountability, and making sure that whatever space we still have, we still use them,” she added.
TOP PHOTO: PCOO