Instant pariahs

Both the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Ombudsman-Visayas have become instant pariahs or “spoilsports” before the public for either trying to enforce the law or in the case of the Ombudsman-Visayas, reminding local officials about it.

The BIR’s decision to enforce a freeze order on People’s Champ Manny Pacquiao’s cash and bank assets comes on the heels of the Sarangani congressman’s breezy victory over Brandon Rios last Sunday.

While Pacquiao griped that he had to borrow P1 million to extend cash assistance to the typhoon victims in central Philippines, BIR chief Kim Henares had to explain that the freeze order was the result of Pacquiao’s failure to settle his taxes which now amounted to a gargantuan P2.2 billion.

The onus of the blame doesn’t lie on Pacquiao, whose contention that he earned his money through his sweat, blood and tears serves as a strong reminder for the Aquino government to go after Janet Lim-Napoles and her ilk who cooperated with corrupt officials in stealing from the Filipino people’s treasury.

Rather it is the congressman/boxer’s legal and finance team as well as Top Rank management headed by Bob Arum who failed to handle Pacquiao’s finances that should be haled to court and made to explain where the payment for his taxes went.

Based on Pacquiao’s pay-per-view earnings on the Rios bout alone, he can settle the P2.2 billion taxes by half and still have more than enough left over to settle the rest of the amount and spend the rest for five lifetimes, including that of his children and grandchildren.

On a smaller scale, the Ombudsman-Visayas’ reminder for the Cebu city government to comply with the law on solicitation should be taken as it is, namely a friendly piece of advice that may or may not have been influenced by Mayor Michael Rama’s political critics.

The fund-raising campaign to build a new city hospital, while noble, as Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol pointed out, doesn’t have visible accounting mechanisms that would detail where every centavo of the donated cash would all go to.

As it is, Apostol reiterated that the solicitation drive should secure a permit from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), another agency along with the BIR and the Bureau of Customs whose reputations are being tarred with persistent questions of irregularities in relation to their collection efforts in ongoing relief and rehabilitation campaign for victims of supertyphoon Yolanda.

Unpopular and distasteful, their actions and reminders of the law may be, both Pacquiao, Cebu City Hall and the public should at the very least take the explanations of these agencies at face value, at least until considerable evidence is presented that would prove there were irregularities or questionable motives behind their strict enforcement of the law.