THE Lower House of Congress was asked to investigate the issue of unpaid estate taxes by the Marcos family.
In House Resolution 2553, the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability was asked to conduct an investigation in aid of legislation on the issue to be able to find solutions or proposals to ensure that the same or any issues related to it will not happen in the future.
The resolution urged that an investigation is needed to explain why the government failed to collect the estate tax from the Marcos family, which is estimated to have ballooned to P203 billion from the original amount of P23 billion.
And despite the demand for payment from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), no estate tax payment has been made by the Marcos family.
According to legislators who authored the resolution, had the government collected the estate tax, it could have been used by the state for the much-needed financial assistance and other public services, especially now that the country is on the verge of recovery brought about by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It can be recalled that the Senate was already asked to look at why the BIR failed to collect the billions of estate taxes from the Marcoses despite the Supreme Court ruling and other applicable laws.
But the Marcos family insisted that the Supreme Court decision is not yet final and an appeal on this is still pending.