SIXTO Esquivias 4th did an honorable thing recently—something that’s rare in government.

He resigned as Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), citing the agency’s failure to meet collection targets under his watch. It was the second departure of a BIR chief in less than a year after his predecessor, Lilian Hefti, likewise left the bureau over differences with the Department of Finance (DOF) secretary.

The Attrition Law provides for the relief or transfer of BIR officials if they fail to hit collection targets.
Esquivias didn’t bother to wait for the law to take its course, and resigned ahead of the day of reckoning.

At end-September, the bureau had collected P577 billion, or P39.2 billion short of its nine-month goal of P596.2 billion. This year’s collections likewise were lower than last year’s P587.9 billion.

To be fair, the BIR is tasked to meet targets in a very difficult economic environment that has seen the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slow sharply to 1 percent in the first six months from 4 percent last year.

The devastation caused by a series of typhoons would surely dampen further tax collections. Before he stepped down, Esquivias issued what amounted to a tax amnesty for businesses adversely affected by the typhoons and the floods that they brought about.

Add to the bureau’s hurdles a string of laws enacted over the past few years, the combined effect of which undermined its collection effort. These are the mandatory reversion of the corporate income tax rate to 32 percent from 35 percent previously as provided for in the Expanded Value-Added Tax Law, the higher personal exemption allowances provided by Republic Act 9504, the tax breaks granted by both the Personal Equity and Retirement Act (PERA) and the Tourism Development Act.

R.A. 9504 increased the level of personal exemption allowance of each individual taxpayer to a uniform amount of P50,000 regardless of their status. It also raised the additional exemption allowance for each qualified dependent from P8,000 to P25,000.

The PERA and the Tourism Act would cost the government a combined P10 billion in yearly foregone revenues.

All in all, the slew of tax-eroding measures would cost the government between P60 billion and P65 billion.

Like his predecessor, Esquivias had been pushing for a more realistic collection target in light of the poor economic environment and the host of newly passed revenue-eroding laws, but to no avail.

This makes us wonder why command responsibility seems to have stopped at the doorstep of the BIR chief, who after all reports to a higher authority, the DOF secretary. In fairness to the latter, he has been trying to rationalize the system of tax incentives and exemptions. But his efforts have come to naught in the face of lawmakers determined to shake the revenue trees for their own benefit.

Other resignations

Another government official who like Esquivias chose to step down on his own terms was the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretary, Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

His departure came in the wake of the floods caused by Typhoon Ondoy in Metro Manila. Despite the removal of flood control from among the DPWH’s responsibilities and its transfer to another agency, the department bore the brunt of the blame for the record flooding that submerged half of the National Capital Region.

But even before the typhoons struck, the DPWH secretary had been under fire for anomalies related to the misuse of the road user’s tax. A Senate committee looking into the matter had recommended filing graft charges against Ebdane.

The DPWH chief could have stuck it out and use his position to fend off the charges, but he opted to step down and face the music without the powers of a Cabinet member.

Of course, another reason he chose to give up his post is his declared quest for the presidency come May next year, especially after the ruling party picked an outsider over him. Not that Ebdane has a whale of a chance to clinch the highest office in the land.

Lastly, who could forget the one-time Socioeconomic Planning secretary who publicly clashed with the
Department of Energy secretary over the latter’s alleged coddling of the oil industry amid unreasonable increases in the price of the politically charged commodity?

Early on, former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Ralph Recto stepped down because according to him, he had plans of running for office next year.

To be sure, these three gentlemen don’t have spotless records. Indeed one of them may be charged in court for misusing public funds—something we don’t condone.

But they did what many who are still in power have refused to do ostensibly in a bid to use their office to pursue their political ambitions. Sometimes stepping down is the most honorable thing to do, and hanging on to power the most shameless effrontery.