This became President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s reaction to being questioned concerning corruption in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

During a media briefing on Thursday, Marcos was questioned what his particular marching orders will be for individuals who will manage the two agencies in dealing with corruption claims.

“Kalimutan na lang natin ‘yung nakaraan,” Marcos said.

Marcos stated that he would only go after individuals who will be engaging in corrupt actions during his presidency. He emphasized that there should be no room for corruption in government.

Marcos told that “Ah corruption? Kalimutan na lang natin ‘yung nakaraan. Sasabihin natin, ‘Ah sige that’s not under my watch, hindi ako, hindi ako namamahala noon eh. Ngayon ako na namamahala, so wala nang ganyan.”

He also added that “Kung mayroon pang ganyan eh hahabul-habulin talaga namin kayo hindi pupuwede ‘yan because we will not succeed.”

Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., often known as Bongbong Marcos or BBM, is a Filipino politician and the country’s presumptive president-elect. From 2010 through 2016, he served as a senator.

Having requested clarification, Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles, Marcos’s choice for new Press Secretary, stated that the president-elect just doesn’t want to dwell on “sins of the past.”

She stated that she was unable to elaborate on Marcos’ statements on the subject.

“Pending cases will continue because they’re pending cases. I think the approach as he had expounded in previous interviews is simply to not to concentrate too much on fault-finding or on the sins of the past because in his words, and I quote, ‘Ako na ang namamahala ngayon. Kung dati hindi ako, ang nanagot ‘yung iba (I’m the one in charge now.)” Cruz-Angeles stated.

Meanwhile, Marcos considered that it was necessary to “codeify our tax” in order to make it easier and more comprehensible.

“Now in my discussions with our legislators yesterday, we are trying to create some fiscal space. So that to reduce the load on ordinary citizens and maybe move the load up, the tax load up and there’s also distribution of wealth implications to that which are very very important. It’s one of the areas that I think we have to work on very very hard,” Marcos stated.

He also intends to reduce tax collections in places affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That means MSMEs, agricultural sector, transport, ‘yung mga ganoon, so babawasan natin let’s hope we can raise funds in other areas and use it there,” Marcos stated.