False: Marcos heirs not liable for estate tax

Claim: BIR officials sinupalpal si Carpio, et al; Tagapagmana ni Marcos hindi pwedeng papanagutin sa P203B estate tax

Rating: False

Complete Details: A post on Facebook by Bon James Dy Vlog claims that a regional director and other officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) all over the country broke their silence and revealed that the heirs and administrator of the estate of former President Ferdinand Marcos cannot be held liable for the 203 billion estate tax assessment.

They are countering the claims of former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio and Presidential candidates Francisco Domagoso, Emmanuel Pacquiao, Ma. Leonor Robredo and others with the explanation that the estate tax is levied against the real and personal property of the deceased and not on the properties of his relatives.

Why we fact-check this: This post’s sources were two misleading banner articles in Manila Bulletin and Manila Times which made it appear that the heirs are not liable for the estate tax. But in the article, the quoted tax experts and BIR officials to give credibility to this claim were not named. This post has garnered 197 shares as of this posting.

In the case G.R. No. 120880 Marcos II vs CA, the Supreme Court decision reads in part: “We cannot, therefore, countenance petitioner’s insistence that he was denied due process. Where there was an opportunity to raise objections to government action, and such opportunity was disregarded, for no justifiable reason, the party claiming oppression then becomes the oppressor of the orderly functions of government. He who comes to court must come with clean hands. Otherwise, he not only taints his name but ridicules the very structure of established authority. The decision is final and executory.”

(The Mindanao Gold Star Daily is part of the more than 100 organizations online initiative from media, coalitions, civil society, business, academe, law, and the religious sector called ‘#FactsFirstPH.’ The initiative aims to collectively push for truth-telling and debunking lies through four steps: fact-checking by news organizations; networking by civil society and grassroots groups; research and analysis by academic institutions; and seeking accountability by lawyers’ groups.)