President Rodrigo Duterte said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) should be asked why they still failed to collect unpaid estate taxes from a prominent personality.

"In our taxation, the government can only prod. There is no need for a reminder from the Malacañang. The BIR is there, so let's ask the BIR why they have not yet collected the estate tax," Duterte said during the taped Talk To The People on Tuesday night.

Duterte did not name from whom the estate tax should be collected nor the amount. But the alleged 203 billion pesos unpaid estate tax of the family of the former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. recently became controversial after it was tackled during the first presidential debate hosted by the Comelec this March.

Duterte was discussing the importance of the revenue that the government collected from the operation of online cockfigthing also calls "e-sabong" when he mentioned the uncollected estate tax of the BIR.

"Maybe you have doubts why I did not suspend it. I did not suspend it because the government needs money from e-sabong. I’ll make it public now, it’s 640 million (pesos) a month. And in a year’s time, it's a billion ( pesos) plus. Where we can get money as easily as that?" he said.

In a television interview, Aksyon Demokratiko chairman Ernest Ramel said aside from the alleged ₱203-billion unpaid estate taxes, the government has not yet recovered the reported ₱125 billion worth of alleged ill-gotten wealth linked to the Marcoses. Robina Asido/DMS