Top Bosses of BIR-Region-1 Reshuffled

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO - Almost all of the six revenue district office (RDO) chiefs of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in the Ilocos Region have been reshuffled through Revenue Travel Assignment Order in a move to spike lethargic collection.

According to Assistant RDO -4 Chief Bernadette Mangaoang and Head of the Taxpayer Assistance Unit Chief Lee Caday of BIR’s regional office based here,  La Union RDO-3 Chief Ernesto Mangabat’s post had been replaced by Charmaine C. de la Torre, Central Pangasinan RDO-4 Chief Merlyn Vicente had been succeeded by Mangabat; Eastern Pangasinan RDO-5 Chief Maria Isabel B. Utit had been replaced by Nerissa Agraam, and Western Pangasinan RDO-6 Chief Charmaine dela Torre had been changed by Tohammie Yaya.

NEW FACES - Two of the new bosses dubbed as Revenue District Office's (RDO) chief assigned in central and eastern Pangasinan after the massive reshuffle undergone by the leadership of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Region 1. From left is RD0-4 Chief Ernesto Mangabat and RDO-5 Chief Nerissa Agraam.

BIR Region 1 is under the watch of Regional Director Clavelina Nacar and Assistant Regional Director Fely C. Simon.

Only Ilocos Norte RDO-1 Chief Helen Leano and Ilocos Sur RDO-2 Chief Trina Villamil were not affected by the reshuffle.

According to Caday, RDO-4 Chief Vicente was transferred to Baler, Aurora Province while RDO-5 Chief Utit returned to her previous post in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya.

Lately, some RDO chiefs in the four provinces’ Region-1 were grumblings about their laggard collection because of the exception for tax collection by the P22,000 monthly or P250, 000 annual salary of the minimum-wage-worker in the Train Law. The Law included too to be collected by the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) in the main office of the BIR in Quezon City taxes on cars, fuel, tobacco, cosmetic surgery, tobacco, and some sweetened beverages. 
They cited that the contractors’ taxes at the Department of Public Works & Highway have been taken by the LTS, and the inclusion of some of the contractors’ taxes in their tax goal for this year even the taxes have been withheld by the LTS.

Its inclusion affects their tax goal for this year that most of them said will be impossible to hit.

RDO -4 that covers Central Pangasinan has a tax goal this year of P4, 772, 404,000.00 compared to its last year’s target of P4, 015, 661,029.41.

That collection in 2017 and repeated as target for 2018, although hundreds of million pesos bigger still include the DPWH taxes.

“It’s tough for our RDO chief since we are no longer allowed to collect the DPWH taxes but they are included in this year’s collection,” a source, who asked anonymity there, said.

Another source at the RDO-6 that is based in Eastern Pangasinan said that despite its almost P2.3 billion tax goal this year reduced by P200 million because of the public works’ taxes, the office still faces a tall order because the reduction was to the almost P300 million that had been added to the P2 billion.

“Although the P300 million became P100 million of our present roughly P2.1 billion goal, we still have to collect a significant part of the DPWH taxes inside the P2 billion for this year,” she deplored.

These problems  as a result of those mentioned factors are endemic to all RDO chiefs all over the country.
The six RDOs in Region 1 are tasked by the national government to collect P17, 646,987,000.00 for year 2018.
The BIR, under Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay, has a tax goal of  P2.039  trillion this year.

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