With the national headlines focused on the Pork Barrel scam allegedly perpetrated by Janet Lim-Napoles, it seems that Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Hernares is missing the limelight. So we learned that the BIR Chief is set to issue a directive for doctors, lawyers and other professionals to visibly post in their clinics or offices the rates that they would be charging to their clients. The BIR's purpose is purportedly aimed at promoting transparency and discouraging tax evasion among self-employed professionals, where she believes that tax evasion is rampant.
The BIR Chief's timing couldn't be less than perfect because the Filipino people are indignant at what is happening with our Political Elite today where congressmen and senators are taking liberties with their Pork Barrels in stuffing their own pockets with monies that are supposed to go to the people who need them. We already saw those TV interviews of farmers who were supposed to be the beneficiaries of the pork saying that they got nothing!
In the end, people like Janet Lim-Napoles siphoned off these Pork Barrel funds into fake NGO's so she too could stuff herself with the people's money. Netizens saw how rich the Napoles family has become. All you need to do is look up the lifestyle of her daughter abroad where she is squandering our money living in luxury while the majority of Filipinos remain in stark poverty. Surely BIR officials have seen the anger of the Filipino people.
Doesn't the BIR officials know that in their fit of anger many netizens during the Million Man March at the Luneta came up with placards asking people to do civil disobedience? If you didn't know civil disobedience means asking the taxpayers not to pay their taxes to the BIR because anyway the money that they pay would end up in the pockets of the Napoles family. I have met some of these people and I told them not paying your taxes is a crime in this country. But with this stupid circular looming in the horizon, the BIR might just trigger a new wave of angst from our people.
So this brings me to the question… how would the BIR Revenue Memorandum Circular look? Will law offices now put signs that say "Charges against larceny, P15,000; pickpocketing, P20,000; bank robbery, P150,000; rape, P120,000; murder, P150,000; libel, P100,000; kidnapping, P180,000; kidnapping with rape, P200,000. All items with VAT. Please add 20% to the total sum if we have to bribe the Judge!" Is this what the BIR wants lawyers to publish in their offices?
If you think this is funny, look at what the BIR would do to doctor's clinics… "Ordinary checkup, P100.00; Check up using medical equipment, P200.00. For Pregnant women, ordinary check up, P200.00; giving birth ordinary way P2,000. Giving birth Caesarian operation P5,000.00. For Heart Pa-tients. Ordinary check up, P200. Checkup using medical equipment, P600.00. For Cancer Patients, Colon Cancer P200,000 with colonoscopy; P500,000 with operation. Appendix removal, P30,000. Liver Transplant, P1.5 Million.
These are just examples of what to expect when BIR Chief Kim Hernares gets her way. Mind you, most doctors are Internet savvy and this case has already gone viral in the social networking sites. But since I don't have permission to print their names… I will just omit them. But here is what these doctors are saying on Facebook,
"Sa clinic nako: duka (Drowsy) 500, Tulog (sleepy) 1,000, Hagok (snoring) 2,000, bangungot (nightmare) 5,000. Incidental charges facial and removal of blackheads while under General Anesthesia 1,500, pedicure under epidural 250. Atay 2,000, Bituka 3,000, ulo 5,000. Why do they need to increase revenue to meet government expenditures? Why not decrease gov't expenditures?"
These are just few examples of what many doctors or people in the medical profession feel about the up and coming BIR Directive. Let me point out that the BIR Chief is authorized to file criminal charges of tax evasion to anyone refusing to pay their taxes. So why is there a need to rattle the entire medical establishment because there are a few in their profession who do not pay their taxes? Call this piece a satire of the BIR's proposal. But I find it totally outrageous that the offices of doctors or lawyers would now put prices or rates in their offices. It is degrading if you ask me. The BIR under the Aquino Regime has turned a noble profession into a cafeteria!
* * *
Speaking of the medical profession. A couple of weeks ago, my nephew and his wife were devastated when their doctor told them that their coming baby girl had a tumor in her brain. In the end, they had to do a caesarian section to ensure that the baby came out well. But when the baby was born, she had a scar near her left eye. Was this a botched job? Worse, she came out healthy without any tumor at all? So was it the doctors' fault or the hospital's equipment that showed a tumor when there was none? We were all in anguish because of this misdiagnosis. So who is at fault here? Abangan!
* * *
Email: vsbobita@gmail.com.