MANILA - Government can no longer collect the estate taxes of the Marcos family if Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. wins the presidency in the upcoming elections, retired Supreme Court Senior Associate justice Antonio Carpio said Thursday.

Carpio made the remark as he reiterated that the Supreme Court decided with finality in 1997 that the Marcoses' excise tax assessment of over P23 billion was final and executory.

The dictator family's estate tax has since ballooned to some P203 billion due to interest, according to former Bureau of Internal Revenue commissioner Kim Henares.

• Henares, Carpio: Marcos Jr. can escape P203B estate tax liability if he wins as President
• Marcos estate taxes don't disprove ill-gotten wealth: ex-BIR chief

"The president should be the number 1 model for the country. He’s the father of the nation. Government runs on taxes, it's fuel. Without taxes, government cannot run," Carpio told ANC's Headstart.

"The president must set an example. Everybody’s saying now, 'pag siya di magbayad bakit ako magbayad?' It has to be settled before the election date."

(Everybody’s saying now, 'if he doesn't pay, why should I pay?')

Marcos winning would give him the power to appoint the BIR commissioner, Carpio said.

"The president has supervision and control over the entire executive department. Control means he can reverse their decision. He can preempt and make the decision himself," he said.

The BIR would have frozen the Marcoses' bank accounts, garnished levy on all their properties and sued them for willful refusal to pay taxes if they were ordinary citizens, Carpio said.

• Duterte asks BIR why it has not collected a certain estate tax

"They will collect if you're an ordinary person but if you’re a government official, senator, governor they will not collect it. How much more if you're the president. That’s gone forever," he said.

"Nobody wanted to cross with them because they were in the Senate, they were governors. The duty of government is to collect taxes equally."

The Marcoses should have paid their estate tax when the Supreme Court decision became final, Carpio said.

"They claim they have the Tallano gold. Imelda (Marcos) says they own the entire Philippines so they have the money. You just don't run (for public office) without billions of pesos," he said.

The Marcos camp has maintained that the family's unpaid estate tax liability remain pending in court.

• 'All about politics': Marcos Jr. camp claims estate tax case still pending in court

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