A Few Good (Wo)men at the BIR

RDO-4 Chief Cristine Cardona

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Asst. RDO Chief Charmaine dela Torre

The reason that many revenue district offices (RDO) of the Bureau of Internal Revenue all over the country came short on their tax targets last year was because of the government’s failure to spend for major infrastructure projects in the first semester of 2011.

RDOs get their other sources of revenues through the Tax Remittance Advisory.

TRA is when private subcontractors’ income tax and Value Added Tax are withheld by the government that contracted their service for a certain project.

But not for RDOs 2 and 4 of Vigan in Ilocos Sur, and Calasiao in Pangasinan - two of the six RDOs in Region 1.

RDO-4, the premier tax office in the region which is believed to be bigger than the BIR in the entire Tarlac province, collects almost two billion of pesos each year for the government.

Its tax target for 2011was P1.776 billion.

 As of November 2011 it collected already P 1,681,442,543.40 (against its P1, 631,029,000.00 target for that month) – a hurdle, according to Assistant Revenue District Office chief Charmaine C. Dela Torre, that it would be blazing on overshooting again its annual tax target at the end of 2011.  

RDO-4 covers two cities and 13 towns in central Pangasinan.

With the rumored looming promotional reassignments of RDO Chiefs Christine Cardona and Imelda Bueno of RDOs-4 and 2, BIR watchers particularly wonder who sits on the top perch of RDO-4.

Would it be someone who hits his/her target in Mindanao, Visayas, central Luzon, or southern Luzon (as what Henares has done last year)? Or would it be from Vigan or somebody from the RDO-4 like Assistant RDO  dela Torre?

The fair minded commissioner should consider the credentials of dela Torre, a young unassuming media friendly tax honcho, who was the architect of the successive collection streaks of the Calasiao-based tax office.

She collaborated with former RDO chiefs Joseph Catapia and Yolanda Ferrer, and Cardona hit the goal given by the national tax office in the past.

The indispensability of dela Torre for the continues streak of RD0-4 is worth looking madam commissioner (whom I met with her father-in-law and my idol Larry Henares at the recent birthday of former Speaker Joe de Venecia ).

We need more few good (wo)men at the BIR for the progress of our country.

Am I right, manay Gina de Venecia?