EDITORIAL - Don't make Pacquiao tax poster boy

If BIR Commissioner Kim Henares thinks her high profile chase after boxing icon Manny Pacquiao's tax deficiencies will make it the poster scene of government's supposed no-nonsense campaign against tax evasion, she is sorely deluding herself.

To be sure, his exploits in the ring, and the pride these have given the Filipino nation, cannot be made excuses to exempt Pacquiao from paying his dues to government. The hero that he has become to many -- this in fact should be the single biggest reason why Pacquiao should be the role model for civic consciousness.

But Henares would be wrong to think that by going after Pacquiao she can now boast that her agency is really serious in pursuing its mandate. She cannot simply say "See, we are even going after Pacquiao" and turn a blind eye to the other, more numerous, and more brazen cheating on taxes that is going on.

For example, what is Henares doing about high-income professionals like doctors and lawyers many of who, by her very own account, pay as low as two thousand pesos a year in taxes? That kind of amount is simply ridiculous and causes anger and resentment among wage earners who pay even more.

A dogged pursuit of Pacquiao's taxes, no matter how earnest, will always seem hollow in light of any lack of interest in pursuing other tax cheats. Netting Pacquiao will never be a substitute for all those devious others who got away, especially those who got away because the BIR prefers to look the other way.

If Henares wants to reap the laurels from her dogged pursuit of Pacquiao, she must at the same time go after the other tax cheats, not only to make her drive compelling, but also to reassure the public that if government milks the public of its earnings, at least it is equitably spreading the milking.

Nothing riles a people being taxed almost beyond their capacity to pay than to see other people earning several fold more than they do being taxed for so much less. That taxes have sparked revolutions countless of times is plain and simple proof of how impassioned the matter of taxes can drive people.

Again, Henares must not make Pacquiao her poster boy in any tax campaign, even if he richly deserves to be one. Instead of achieving her desired intention, it can only blow up in her face and make a pretty fine mess of it if she does not spread the squeeze.