MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday told journalists that he has not been updated with his family’s non-payment of billions in estate taxes, saying that he has been too preoccupied with “matters of state and governance.”
Marcos has been named as the co-executor of their family’s estate, sharing the responsibility with his mother, former First Lady Imelda Marcos.
“I have neglected some of my duties as co-executor because I have been busy with many things a President is busy with,” he said during his luncheon with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).
“I don't really sit in these meetings and I do not really concern myself about that. It is not something I spend time with. It is a family matter that pales in comparison to what I have to deal with,” he said.
“The matter of state and governance is more important than any family matter — 113 million times more important,” he said.
In 1999, the Supreme Court of the Philippines ordered heirs of the Marcos family estate to pay some P23 billion in estate taxes, but the amount has since ballooned to P203 billion due to decades of accumulated penalties and interest.
Marcos said these assets should not be referred to as “ill gotten,” citing some court cases their family won over the years.
“The reason we won those civil cases is because they were proven to be not ill-gotten wealth,” he said.
“Kaya nga kami nanalo dahil napatunayan namin na hindi ito ill gotten wealth,” he added.
Marcos also distanced himself from the Arelma assets controversy, saying that he was not involved in the case that refers to some $2-million worth of assets supposedly stashed in a Panama-based shell company.
“I haven't heard that word in almost 20 years… I want to thank you for all the information that you have provided us here today because I don't know these details,” he said.
“Even when we were in the States, I was not involved in any of these legal proceedings, and since I came back, after six years that we were disallowed from coming home, those cases again went forward and I don't know what's happened to them anymore, quite frankly,” he said.
“So, my lawyers will know. So again, feel free to give them a call.”