Doctors cry foul over BIR ad

The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) condemned a half-page newspaper ad from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) that allegedly labeled Filipino doctors as tax evaders.The ad was published in the Inquirer in 2 March showing a female doctor riding piggyback on a female teacher, which shares uncanny similarities with the Saridon ads done by BBDO Guerrero.It shows a physician who supposedly earned P1,075,080.52 but paid only P7,424 in taxes while the teacher paid P221,694.23 in taxes shaved from her salary of just P852,169.48.“To project to the entire nation through the tri-media that medical doctors are tax cheats per se is absolutely unfair,” PMA president Dr. Leo Olarte said in a statement.He said that the newspaper advertisement came as a surprise because it was not discussed in PMA’s consultations and joint information campaign activities with the BIR.The Inquirer reports that the the ad was created by JWT Philippines for the BIR as part of a P108-million campaign awarded by The Millennium Challenge Corp., an independent U.S. Government foreign aid agency.Believing all doctors as rich is far from the truth, says Olarte, explaining that some doctors earn less than P15, 000 a month while government doctors earn a little over P20, 000 monthly – meager salaries that have led to an “overwhelming migration of doctors to other countries.”Olarte said that the association hopes its “public relation spinmiesters to practice their trade fairly… refraining from engaging in tactics that can be viewed as irritants and divisive to both our organization's common goals in nation building.”Not just about doctorsAlso far from the truth is that the tax evasion campaign singled out Filipinos doctors, contrary to several reports in the media.  In addition to doctors, the BIR also targeted the construction industry and restaurant operators.Below is a picture posted on imgur showing the three ads in the series. So far, the PMA is the only group that reacted to the BIR ads.In an interview with ANC's Headstart, BIR Commissioner Kim Henares said that is "not insulting" and is “making a statement of fact” based on data they have gathered."The whole ad is talking to those who are not paying the right taxes. You should be ashamed or embarrassed to those who are paying the right taxes, that's the whole message... It can be a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, anyone on top who do not pay the right tax," she said.