Doctors, militant groups picket BIR over shame ads

MANILA, Philippines - Doctors assembled yesterday outside the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) central office in Quezon City to protest an advertisement supposedly portraying them as tax evaders.

They said the print ad was offensive and shamed honest health professionals and workers whose salaries are automatically taxed.

In a statement, Geneve Rivera-Reyes, Health Alliance for Democracy secretary-general, said the advertisement shamed and offended physicians. She said government health workers have taxes automatically deducted from their salaries.

The group joined members of Gabriela and the Alliance of Concerned Teachers during the rally.

“Our issue with the BIR ad portraying specific sectors, or just doctors, as a burden to other taxpayers is that it is completely flawed,” she said.

Reyes said physicians in government have 14 percent of their salary automatically deducted as taxes.

“A tax evader is a tax evader,” she said. “He or she has no face, has no profession. There is only the motive to evade paying tax, and there could be a lot of reasons, to maximize profit or maybe being plain tired of paying taxes that won’t translate to services anyway.”

The BIR campaign seemingly singled them out, the doctors said.

Meanwhile, Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said yesterday the Aquino administration should allocate funds from its so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) to assist cash-strapped government hospitals instead of selling them to the private sector.

“Privatizing our government hospitals will not do any good because instead of service, business will be the priority of the new owners,” Atienza said.

Since health services have been devolved to local government units (LGUs), the national government should give them their just share not only in the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) but in all taxes being collected by the government, especially the value-added tax, as provided for in the Constitution.  – With Paolo Romero