An insight from Atty. Mel Sta. Maria (a resident legal analyst of TV5, Dean of the FEU Institute of Law and Faculty Member at Ateneo School of Law and daily co-hosts the program Relasyon on Radyo Singko 92.3 News FM) re: recent BIR Ad for professional tax evaders: The problem with some government officials in the Philippines is that they feel more like kings and queens rather than public servants. What they say sticks, no matter the cost or who gets hurt and regardless of how they say or exhibit it, even though it is legally repugnant. And so we see suspected criminals, despite the absence of a charge, are exhibited and lined up by the police, with utter disregard for their constitutional presumption of innocence and without entertaining the thought that the apprehended might just be innocent. That is simply official arrogance, nothing less. Worse, this happens almost always to suspects who belong to society’s marginalized sector and not to the rich and the famous. The unequal treatment is self-evident. It is discriminatory. And now we see another form of this of insensitivity. And the target is not the marginalized, but the professionals. Did you see the advertisement put up by the Bureau of Internal Reveue (BIR) showing a doctor carried on the shoulders of a teacher with annotations unmistakably indicating tax evasion on the part of the doctor? The purpose seems to be clear--- to shame the doctor on the miniscule amount of taxes she paid. Sure, people must correctly pay their taxes and those who evade it must be taken to task. But was it really necessary for the BIR to do this in a very public, humiliating, unsavory way that besmirches not one person but the whole medical profession? The BIR surely must have even paid for the ad space. Their argument – why complain? If the doctors do not evade taxes, they have no reason to be hurt by the advertisement. That is an argument of an arguer without really arguing anything substantial. These government officials totally miss the point. And the point is this---- ABUSE OF RIGHT. Under this doctrine, you might technically do something legal but you can still hurt people and may be held liable. While it is the BIR officials’ right and duty to collect taxes from the people, they cannot do so in a way designed to cause unnecessary damage to a person’s reputation, honor and even privacy. It is plain wrong. Article 26 of the Civil Code provides that “every person shall respect the dignity, personality, privacy and peace of mind of his neighbors and other persons.” That is the law and government officials are not exempted from observing it. They are not above the law. Article 19 says that “every person must, in the exercise of his rights and in the performance of his duties, act with justice, give everyone his due, and observe honesty and good faith.” And finally, Article 20 mandates that “every person who, contrary to law, wilfully or negligently causes damage to another, shall indemnify the latter for the same.” The published advertisement may also be criminally libelous for it makes an accusation of a crime, condition, status or circumstance that tends to cause dishonor, discredit or contempt of a person. We are supposed to live in a civil society. If government officials arrogantly violate the law and think they are not violating the law, freely besmirching , ridiculing, maligning, treating with condescension and denigrating people or groups of people, our society is really in trouble. Worst, it is in deep trouble not because of things done by ordinary citizens but those undertaken by government officials who abuse power as if they have absolute right to it. Rather than endear the government to the people, they are the cause for their alienation. What repulsive arrogance. AMEN. I totally agree.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 15:18:56 +0000
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