"This country’s tax delinquents are finding perfect support for their perverse attitude."
"This country’s tax delinquents are finding perfect support for their perverse attitude."
A decision by the Comelec (Commision on Elections) and the courts to allow Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – BBM to his supporters – to run for the presidency of the Philippines in the May 2022 election has implications that go far beyond the ability of a citizen to exercise his constitutional right to seek election to a public office. The most consequential of these implications is the decision’s impact on the future viability of this country’s fiscal system, which depends mainly on the performance of the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue).
The answer most usually given by tax delinquents – Filipino who cheat on their taxes or fail to file ITRs (income tax returns) altogether – the question “Why don’t you comply with your tax obligations?” is that they are simply emulating the example of many wealthy and powerful individuals. They ask why they should religiously comply with their tax obligations when many wealthy and powerful individuals are able to get away with their tax delinquency.
This country’s tax delinquents are finding perfect support for their perverse attitude in the person of would-be Presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. BBM did not just cheat on his taxes or fail to file ITRs; the BIR prosecuted him for failing to file income tax returns for the years when he was governor of Ilocos Norte and he was convicted by the RTC (Regional Trial Court) for violation of the National Internal Revenue Code and meted the penalty of imprisonment and payment of delinquency fines. The conviction was upheld by the CA (Court of Appeals).
Under normal circumstances BBM should have served his sentence immediately, considering that the CA decision was a final judgement. But not only did President Marcos’s son and namesake fail to serve the sentence, he also was allowed to launch candidacies for the Senate and the Vice-Presidency of the Philippines. His candidacies were clear violations of his father’s PD (Presidential Decree) No. 1994, the penalty for violation of which tax law “among others, includes the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding any public office….. in case of conviction of a crime penalized under the NIRC.”
The pricey lawyers hired by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. have been unable to deny (1) his conviction by final judgement of violation of the National Internal Revenue Code and PD No. 1994 and (2) his failure to fulfill the penalties meted out to him by the courts. The BBM lawyers had no choice: these were documented facts.
Yet the nation is currently facing the spectacle of a convicted tax development insisting that he is – in the words of the OEC (Omnibus Election Code) – “eligible for the office you seek to be elected to.” In so doing, he made a false “material representation” in his COC (certificate of candidacy), which nine opposing petitioners want the Comelec to cancel.
I really don’t know how the Comelec and the courts will reason their way out of not disqualifying BBM. What I do know is that the credibility of the government’s pay-your-right-taxes campaign hangs in the balance.
In the face of the relentlessly growing needs of the Philippine economy – for jobs, social services, infrastructure and debt service – a decision to allow Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to get away with his tax delinquency would deliver a death blow to the government’s tax compliance program.
Thereafter, Filipinos who do not comply with their tax obligations will always justify their actions by pointing to the outcome of the disqualification/COC cancellation petitions.
If the Comelec and the courts decide in favor of Mr. Marcos, the government might as well forget about tax compliance. It will be a case of hello, BBM, goodbye, tax compliance.