Politics

Philippine finance minister urges Marcos Jr. to settle treasury debt

Manila, Jun 22 (EFE).- Philippine Finance Minister Lilla Guillermo told President-elect Bongbong Marcos on Wednesday to be a “role model” and settle a debt with the treasury for unpaid estate taxes if the treasury decides.

Guillermo, recently appointed head of the new treasury portfolio by Marcos Jr, who will be sworn in on Jun. 30 after sweeping the last elections, said she wanted to clarify that she had not yet “seen all the documents” of the case, which began with a 1997 Supreme Court ruling.

The sentence then forced the heirs of the president elect’s father, dictator Ferdinand Marcos, to settle their liabilities with the treasury.

The debt was then encrypted by the high court at more than $ 427 million. The treasury has not yet sued the three children of the late dictator due to various appeals raised by the family. It would add today more than $ 3.7 billion for the interest accumulated during the last 25 years.

“I don’t know if it’s really PHP 200 billion, and, if that were the amount, I imagine that the tax collection would really help,” Guillermo told local media outlet ABS-CBN on Wednesday.

During the campaign prior to the May 9 elections, opponents and critics of Bongbong Marcos said the heirs of Marcos Sr. had not yet settled their liabilities with the public treasury, but the candidate defended himself by saying the final amount of the penalty was negotiable.

The Marcos’ still face at least 40 civil trials for alleged crimes during the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos (1972-1986.)

The Philippine government has recovered more than $ 3.6 billion of the illicit wealth accumulated during its years of government, and Imelda Marcos herself has appealed 11 sentences against her, totaling 77 years in prison for corruption crimes.

The Presidential Commission for Good Government, the public institution in charge of recovering the fortune embezzled by the Marcoses, puts the theft from the public treasury at between $ 5 billion and $ 10 billion during the years of Marcos Sr’s government. EFE

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