Duterte raises Pacquiao's 'P2.2-billion tax case' in PDP-Laban meeting

President Rodrigo Duterte has raised Senator Manny Pacquiao's multi-billion-peso tax woes in the past days after the lawmaker said that corruption was worse under the present administration.

In a meeting of PDP-Laban stalwarts on Tuesday, Duterte said Pacquiao had been assessed a P2.2-billion tax liability.

"I do not talk about the others... Ito lang si Pacquiao because out of the blue he blurted out na corrupt so I am forced to... By the way, mayroon akong I remember he has a tax evasion case," Duterte said.

"He has been assessed to pay. P2.2 billion ang utang niya na hindi niya nabayaran ang gobyerno," he added.

Duterte didn't mention the details of what he said was Pacquiao's P2.2-billion tax assessment but the senator in 2018 won a favorable ruling from the Court of Tax Appeals.

The tax court's First Division in July 2018 ordered the Bureau of Internal Revenue to stop its collection of the multi-billion-peso tax deficiency against Pacquiao and his wife, Jinkee, for years 2008 and 2009 while their civil case remained pending.

The CTA also lifted the warrants of distraint and/or levy and garnishment on the disputed tax assessments pending the finality of the case.

In July 2013, then-BIR Commission Kim Jacinto-Henares issued a freeze order against the Pacquiaos earnings for their tax liability worth P2.26 billion. The amount reached P3.3 billion due to penalties and surcharges.

"Respondent is hereby ordered to cease and desist from implementing the subject FDDA (Final Decision on Disputed Assessment) and from collecting the subject deficiency tax assessments issued against petitioners for taxable years 2008 and 2009 for lack of merit," the CTA said in a resolution dated July 27, 2018.

Duterte said he didn't intend to run after Pacquiao for unpaid taxes.

"Not because gusto ko siya habulin but sabi kasi niya corrupt. E, kung corrupt kami, e ikaw, when you cheat government you are a corrupt official," Duterte said, adding that he would check these reports.

[Not because I want to catch him but he said we are corrupt so when you cheat the government, you are  also corrupt.]

The senator had said he was not attacking Duterte but was actually trying to help him fight graft. —NB, GMA News