For now, Filipinos should cease paying taxes until Congress releases a comprehensive report detailing its expenditure of the national budget, according to former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Rep. France Castro filed criminal proceedings against the former president Duterte, who had threatened to kill a lawmaker. This caused House leaders to band together.
Castro’s investigation and the questionable reallocation of Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte’s confidential and intelligence money are the causes of the murder threat.
Prior to this, the former president said Congress was “wallowing” in money.
During his October 23 Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa TV programme, Duterte declared, “You follow me, I will not pay my taxes anymore if they don’t present (a complete disbursement report).
It is a legitimate demand, not a threat. I will pay my taxes again this year if you can tell me where my money went and how it was spent,” he continued.
Duterte stated that since the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is unable to bring legal action against the 50 million Filipinos who refuse to pay their taxes, the people should just submit a complaint against them.
He said that Sara, his daughter, was not treated with respect.
“You showed no regard for my daughter. Why did you make my daughter feel so ashamed and degraded? She didn’t request a job. Speaking in a combination of Filipino and English, he said, “President Marcos gave that to her.”
Sara had stated that she wanted to become defence secretary during the 2022 elections, but Marcos put her in charge of education instead. Giving her the defence portfolio was a “good idea,” according to Marcos on January 24, 2022.
He said, “You are giving the impression that she requested the intelligence fund for corrupt activities.”
When auditing confidential and intelligence funds, state auditors were limited to relying solely on government agencies’ accurate and transparent filings, which made the funds challenging to examine.
