MANILA - A Philippine court slapped a gag order on boxing hero Manny Pacquiao and the tax bureau yesterday 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 for 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 November 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 until January 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 US 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 had not complied. - Sapa-AFP
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