Is BIR Commissioner Henares heartless?

BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

 Just saw Ed Henry of FOX News and White House spokesman Jay Carney sparred during the White House's presser over Eric Holder's lies under oath, President Obama's adamant stance to bypass congress and bomb Syria, and his present diplomatic stance to allow Syria's to pin point sites of her chemical weapons. This scene is a rarity these days in the Philippines where reporters who cover a press conference expose the ignorance of the interviewee-public official. You can watch this treat by accessing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USkihhGSE20.

READY, AIM, FIRE! BIR Commissioner
 Kim Henares

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 Look what I read recently at Forbes Magazine: " Floyd Mayweather and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, billed as “The One,” generated a record $150 million in pay-per-view (PPV) revenue on 2.2 million buys. It breaks the record of $136 million for Mayweather’s 2007 fight against Oscar De La Hoya, but falls short of the 2.5 buys for that bout. “It shows the health of boxing and that it can deliver at the highest level,” says Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy which promoted both Mayweather “. According to the magazine, Floyd would be earning $80 million (P3.2 billion Philippine currency) in a slugfest many non-purist boxing fans dubbed as a snooze fest. Inclusive of the PPV, the 23 year-old Mexican boxing icon Saul “Canelo” Alvarez earned $12 million or P480 million in Philippine peso. ***
 Barely a week after Mayweather “schooled” with his weaving, bobbling, slipping, sliding, and shoulder rolling Alvarez, son of a gun, the wily “grand father of the hurt business” Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins is amenable to the proposal of some matchmakers that he and Floyd clashed somewhere in 160 pounds. It means Bernard comes down from his 170 lbs light heavyweight kingdom to 154 lbs of the junior middleweight turf of Floyd to make the fight possible? “This is crazy man. It would be déjà vu for Oscar dela Hoya who threw significant portions of his weight to rumble with Manny Pacquiao for the love of money. Hopkins, just like what befell Hoya, will become a lethargic zombie and a paper target from Floyd's punches,” I told my “hard core” boxing fans at one of the global boxing websites.
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 Here’s what I found I browsing on speeches of then President William Jefferson “Bill the intern lover” Clinton to get an idea for a piece I am going to write for a Philippines mayor’s first 100 days in office. Has the speech writers at the White House forgot to insert the most appropriate word here? "America demands and deserves big things from us,- and nothing big ever came from being small. Let us remember the timeless wisdom of Cardinal Bernardin, when facing the end of his own life. He said, "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time, on acrimony and division (it should be "dichotomy" in lieu of "division "para rhyme sa "acrimony"- Mortz).

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 I got a copy recently of the Revenue Travel Assignment Order (RTVO) No. 38-2013 dated September 11, 2013 of the chiefs of revenue district office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue all over the country. The order thus said: “The exigencies of the revenue service so requiring, the following personnel are hereby relieved of their present duties and directed to report to their new assignments as indicated…”
 There were mixed reactions on this latest reshuffle from BIR officials executed by its Commissioner Kim Henares.
 One of them told me it is good for the tax collection efficiency of the bureau as new faces in a district avoid familiarization and favoritism with the tax payers who did not pay the right taxes they owe the government because they have rubbed elbows with the old tax top honcho in their district .
 The other one disagree how Henares handles the RTVO since it displaced families.
 He cited as an example the reshuffle done by Henares on 2011. One of the RDO chiefs affected was former RDO chief Merlyn Vicente of RDO -6 that covers Eastern Pangasinan. “Although her reassignment in Zamboanga City was a promotion for her since the RDO office there is much bigger than her previous post, she displaced her family especially her children who are still in the elementary grades”. My source appealed that Henares should be considerate on giving travel assignment orders.
“She should not be heartless. She can reassign those RDOs within the Luzon peninsula, those in Visayas and Mindanao within the same islands. At least in weekends those mothers like Vicente can have physical rapport with their loved ones”.

Moreover, another source said if one browses the RTVO in September 11, the revamped was replete with inequality among many RDO chiefs in the provinces and their counterparts in Metro Manila.

“Sa Metro Manila pinaglilipat lang ang mga RDO doon. Iyong sa Taguig nilagay sa Quezon City, iyong sa Quezon City nilagay sa Taguig. Mukhang may mga ninong itong mga RDOs doon. The commissioner should be fair on reassigning them to far places just like RDOs in the provinces.

Another source said that he could not fathom why many Assistant RDO chiefs become officer-in-charged RDO chiefs while there are a lot of competent RDO chiefs who can handle the same post.

 Here under are the new assignments of the RDO chiefs in Region 1: RDO-1 Ilocos Norte, Melanie Soriano to Batangas; RDO-2 Ilocos Sur, Imelda Bueno to Core Expert Team, Metro Manila; RDO- 3 La Union, Erlinda Victorino to Lipa, Batangas; RDO- 4 Calasiao, Pangasinan, Christine Cardona to La Trinidad, Benguet; RDO-5 Alaminos City, Pangasinan, Quirino Ramos to Marilao, Bulacan; RDO-6 Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, Attorney Beverly Milo to Core Expert Team, Project Management & Implementation, Metro Manila.
 The new RDO-chiefs in Region-1 are: RDO-1 Simplicio Cabantac from Assistant RDO, RDO-31 Sta Cruz; RDO-2 Yolanda Ferrer from RDO chief of RDO-60 Lucena City; RDO- 3 Amador Ducut from OIC-RDO chief RDO- 21B-South Pampanga; RDO- 4 Renato Molina from RDO Chief, RDO- 24 Valenzuela; RDO-5 Emir Abutazil from Technical Assistant, Taxpayer Assistant Service, Metro Manila; RDO-6 Attorney Nasrollah Conding OIC-RDO RDO 92 Pagadian City.

 According to my source the assistant revenue district officers and the examiners brace themselves for other rounds of reshuffle anytime before the end of this year. They pray that Commissioner Henares hopefully reassign them within the Luzon Island so they can be near with their families especially the babies for the mothers even for a weekend or once a month
 Would you acquiesce on that Christian proposal Commissioner?
(Send comments to totomortz@yahoo.com)