Court gags Philippines, Pacquiao in tax war

Court gags Philippines, Pacquiao in tax war | Arab News — Saudi Arabia News, Middle East News, Opinion, Economy and more. Last updated 14 min 4 sec ago HomeSaudi ArabiaMiddle EastWorldEconomySportsLifestyleOpinionIslam in PerspectiveCartoonsCareer Bulls shake off form slump to beat HeatHagel: US committed to Gulf securityGunmen kill leader of Sunni group in PakistanSyria: Suicide car bomber kills 5 in Kurdish townChristie’s turns to India to expand art auction networkThousands in UK face another day of floodingGermany to take in 5,000 more Syrian refugeesThousands in UK face another day of floodingJPMorgan warns 465,000 card users on data loss after cyber attackEU puts Nepal airlines on safety blacklistEngland 35-1 in reply to Australia 570-9 declaredSouth Africa beats India by 141 runsSouth Africa, world mourn ‘giant for justice’ MandelaSouth Africans pay tribute to MandelaAl-Qaeda branch claims Yemen attack; deaths rise to 52Nelson Mandela dies at the age of 95Jobless Saudis demand higher Nitaqat quotas50% hike in istimara feeAl-Amr new Civil Defense chiefLabor crackdown rings in trouble for mobile market Court gags Philippines, Pacquiao in tax war?

In this Nov. 27, 2013 photo, Philippine boxing hero Manny Pacquiao shows a copy of 2008 and 2009 tax returns filed with the IRS in the US, during a meeting with journalists in General Santos City, on the southern island of Mindanao. (AFP)

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Published — Friday 6 December 2013

Last update 5 December 2013 11:49 pm

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MANILA: A Philippine court on Thursday slapped a gag order on boxing hero Manny Pacquiao and the tax bureau as they battle over his allegedly unpaid taxes worth tens of millions of dollars.
The tax appeals court ordered both sides not to make any public comment on the dispute during a hearing about the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s allegations that Pacquiao owes $50 million in unpaid taxes in 2008 and 2009.
Judge Ramon del Rosario told lawyers for both sides “to make no public pronouncements that may create opinion for or against” in the dispute that broke out just after Pacquiao scored a comeback victory over American Brandon Rios on Nov. 24.
“There is a gag order. It was for the best interest of both parties,” said internal revenue lawyer Felix Velasco after the brief hearing.
He said the order followed a joint motion by both parties as the court postponed the next hearing to Jan. 16.
The boxing star, who was at his home in the southern Philippines, did not attend the hearing.
Pacquiao, who was listed by Forbes magazine last year as the 14th highest-paid athlete globally with an estimated $34 million in earnings, had accused the tax bureau of freezing his bank accounts and forcing him to borrow money to pay his staff. He says he paid taxes in the United States on earnings from his fights there.
The boxer, who has parlayed his sports fame into election to Congress and has expressed ambitions to run for president, has also accused the tax bureau of harassing him for political purposes.
But the internal revenue commissioner Kim Henares has said only two bank accounts had been frozen. Henares said the bureau had been giving Pacquiao enough leeway to pay his back taxes but he has not complied.
Sources involved in the case said the postponement of the hearing was intended to give both sides time to try to reach a settlement without going to court.
Pacquiao’s sporting career took a nosedive after he suffered two losses last year, the second in a humiliating knockout to Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez that prompted questions over whether the ageing warrior should retire.
But his victory over Rios has revived both his image and the sentiments of Filipinos who have been battered by a series of disasters in recent months.
Super Typhoon Haiyan flattened whole towns and left more than 7,500 people dead or missing when it hit on November 8.

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