The Taxman Leaveth

I read the following article title in today's Manila Bulletin: "Hefti takes over from Bunag at BIR." I found it kind of funny. What's in a name? Or what's in names?

First, let's talk about the actual news. Mario Bunag (pronounced as bunyag as it is actually spelled with an enye), BIR commissioner, has been replaced by Lilian Hefti as head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Bunag was said to have been let go of by the current administration due to the dismal collection performance of the agency.

News reports, however, also state that Bunag is being used as a scapegoat for the poor revenue performance of the government. It doesn't help his case too, that he is said not to see eye to eye with Teves who heads the Department of Finance.

And I thought the Philippine economy was on a roll. Back to the names though. Bunyag, which sounds like the ex-BIR chief's last name, is a Filipino word which means "to reveal" or "to squeal." Hefti, the incoming head's name, on the other hand sounds like an English word which means huge or substantial. Nakakatawa naman. Maybe the government hopes that with Hefti at the helm of BIR, tax collections will be heftier. As for the former commissioner, will he reveal more things in the coming days?

Abangan.