All BIR brass in Region 1 replaced

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – The regional office of the BIR in Region 1 has not been spared by the reshuffle undertaken recently by the national tax’s office.

NEW RDO-6 CHIEF. Laywer Maria Isabel B. Utit has just been appointed by Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Commissioner Kim Henares as the new chief of the Revenue District Office-6 of the BIR in Pangasinan. 

According to Lee Caday, head of the Taxpayer Assistance Unit, BIR Region 1 Regional Director Arnel Gubala exchanged post with Marina C. de Guzman who held the Region 2 directorial post of the tax agency.

“Revenue District Office-1 (Ilocos Norte) Chief Simplicio Cabantac was replaced by  Ariel M. Calabia, “Revenue District Office-2 (Ilocos Sur) Chief was replaced by  Eduardo T. Obero, “Revenue District Office-3 (La Union) Chief Amador Ducut was replaced by  Luis Alberto, Jr., “Revenue District Office-4 (Central Pangasinan) Chief Renato Molina was replaced by  Fely C. Simon, “Revenue District Office-5 (Western Pangasinan) Chief Emir Abutazil was replaced by  Josephine Catamco, “Revenue District Office-6 (Eastern Pangasinan) Chief Nasrollah Conding was replaced by  Maria Isabel Utit,”  Caday said.

Calabia, Obero, Alberto, Simon, Catamco, and Utit came from their previous posts in Puerto Princesa, Ormoc, Iloilo, Tarlac, Boac, Marinduque, and Nueva Ecija, respectively.

The reshuffle, sanctioned by BIR Commissioner Kim Henares, was in line with the Tax Code that sets the term limit of BIR officials to three years in a particular position. The Revenue Travel Assignment Order (RTVO) took effect 15 days after the BIR brass received it last September 30

Meanwhile, the new lady RDO-6 Chief in Eastern Pangasinan said that her designation on the tax agency’s Urdaneta City office was part of the nationwide reshuffle undertaken by Commissioner Henares this year.

Maria Isabel B. Utit, a CPA-Lawyer, said that after she took the post from lawyer Nasrollah Conding she studies the data of delinquent taxpayer in this one city and 22 towns’ BIR office for effective and bigger collection.

“The goal of RDO-6 this year is P1.2 billion, “she said

Utit said that in her former post in Nueva Vizcaya she had a goal of P800 million this year.

The Pangasinan’s post for Utit is a boost for her since RDO-6 is a part of the “Billionaire’s Club” after it hit the billion peso collection last 2013.

Utit, a native of Leyte, said she finished her Bachelor of Science in Accountancy at Leyte Institute of Technology while her Bachelor of Laws was at the Doctor Vicente Orestes Romualdez Educational Foundation.

“I started as examiner at BIR in Tacloban, passed the bar examination when I was working there and was assigned at the legal division in that place,” she stressed.

She said she was assigned at Tuguegarao’s BIR office in 2003 and became the Assistant Revenue District Office chief.

“Basically I was the RDO (chief) of Nueva Vizcaya  because I held the post as ARDO (chief) for three years, ' Utit, whose husband is a policeman who hailed from Benguet Province, said.

RDO 14 in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya during Utit’s stint in 2013 collected 40% more than her collection in the preceding year.

That feat won her the top collector’s plaudit in the country.