PHILIPPINE presidential candidates backed calls at the weekend for the heirs of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos to pay billions of pesos in estate and income taxes.
At a presidential debate organized by the Commission on Elections on Saturday, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko” M. Domagoso, Vice-President Maria Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo, Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson and labor leader Leodegario “Ka Leody” de Guzman said the government should go after the family’s unpaid estate tax, which could be used to fund social services amid surging global fuel prices.
The Marcoses owe the government billions of pesos in estate and income taxes, the agency tasked to recover the family’s ill-gotten wealth said last week.
The P23-billion estate tax had ballooned to P203.8 billion due to interests and penalties after the Marcos family refused to pay it, according to Mr. Domagoso’s political party.
In her closing statement at the presidential debate, Ms. Robredo said Filipinos should not elect a leader who does not show up in difficult times. “Let’s not look for someone who does not want to face us,” she said, alluding to ex-Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr.
The son and namesake of the late dictator, who has snubbed major presidential debates, did not join Saturday’s Comelec debate.
Civic groups have intensified their campaign against presidential candidacy of Mr. Marcos after the country’s tax bureau confirmed his family’s unpaid taxes.
The dictator stole as much as $10 billion (P522 billion) from the Filipino people, according to government estimates, earning him a Guinness World Record for the “greatest robbery of a government.”
The Presidential Commission on Good Government, created in 1987 to recover ill-gotten wealth of the family and their cronies, has recovered about P171 billion.
During the debate, presidential candidates pitched solutions to address pandemic-induced gaps in the education and labor sectors.
Ms. Robredo reiterated her push to declare an education crisis to make learning curricula more responsive to industry needs. Many young Filipinos struggle to find work despite vacancies due to the dire condition of the country’s educational system, she added.
“We really need to adjust the quality of our education system to prepare our graduates for the job that they want,” she said in Filipino.
“There are plenty of jobs available in the business process outsourcing industry but no one is qualified,” she said. “There are many opportunities in the maritime sector but the skills of people are lacking.”
Ms. Robredo said the government should increase the education budget to 6% from 3% of economic output to.
She also vowed to raise the salaries of teachers and proposed to unburden them from administrative work.
Mr. Domagoso said he would boost farm jobs by including it in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics curriculum. “We learned from this pandemic that we need to produce our own food and not rely on imports.”
Mr. de Guzman vowed to shorten the probationary period for workers, while Senator and boxing champion Emmanuel “Manny” D. Pacquiao said he would fast-track skill training.
Businessman Faisal Mangondato said the government should boost production subsidies for farmers and help them make untended land productive.
Former Cabinet official Ernesto C. Abella said he would focus on primary and secondary education and ensure the mastery of reading, writing and mathematics to address learning gaps worsened by two years of remote learning.
Mr. Lacson said the entire country should be placed under the lowest virus alert level to restore lost jobs. “We should put the whole country under Alert Level 1 so all employees can go back to work.”
He said only 12 of 118 projects were fully accomplished under President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s Build, Build, Build program, which heavily relied on foreign funding.
He also expressed concern over the country’s rising debt. “It’s time to shift from Build, Build, Build to public-private partnerships,’ he said.
Mr. Pacquiao, who praised the Build, Build, Build project, vowed to continue building houses nationwide. He also promised to develop southern Philippines. “That’s the only way to solve the chaos there.”
In a statement at the weekend, Mr. Marcos said his response to “hateful speeches” has always been to maintain a “dignified silence.“ — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza