Kim Henares: The tax woman cometh
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| “In all my time in government no one has offered to give me five centavos,” says BIR Commissioner Kim Henares. |
We all pay taxes. (Or rather, we should all be paying taxes.) It is a
pain to pay our monthly VAT and EWHT, and more so our annual tax every
April. It is now one woman’s job to be on top of making sure we all file
and pay the correct taxes, as well as go after tax evaders and
grafters. She is only the third woman to head the Bureau of Internal
Revenue, and it is her job to meet the P1.066 trillion collection target
this year. We all saw her as the calm, collected, sharp commissioner on
the witness stand at the impeachment trial of the Chief Justice. But
her life is much more colorful, and cooler, than just numbers. Here are
10 things you should know about BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares.
1.
She was a topnotcher in the qualifying exam for accountancy, second
honors upon completion of her law degree, and was a B student in
Georgetown.
“I was just an average student, a B
student,” she humbly says of her Masters in Law in Georgetown. She took
up accounting in De La Salle University, then law in Ateneo, before
going to Georgetown. She attributes her being good with numbers to the
advanced math classes she had in Chinese school growing up, and her
interest in law to her high school days when “in our history and
political science classes we had debates, and I liked debating.”
She
wasn’t always fond of studying though, and in fact had a hard time with
her classes until fourth grade. “I had very good teachers who inspired
me. If the teacher inspired me, I would do well in those classes. When I
didn’t really like the teacher, I didn’t do so well.” She was toying
with the idea of taking up medicine or engineering for college, and is
actually open to taking up medicine even at this point in her life.
2.
A big factor of being an achiever is her growing up in a very
conservative family, where she rarely heard praise for achievements.
“Sometimes you feel you’re never good enough.”
She
agrees with this kind or upbringing, saying that her parents raised her
and her three siblings (she is the eldest) to be very humble. “At the
end of the day, I think that if you’re really good, somebody else should
be the one to say that you are, and not you yourself,” she shares. As a
family, she says they are just very conservative, not involved in
politics or social events, but instead focused on business. She may have
rarely heard compliments from her parents growing up, but she
delightfully shares, “We will hear it from somebody else that our
parents pala said these praises about us.”
3. On bribery: “In all my time in government, no one has even offered to give me five centavos.”
Commissioner
Kim even chuckles while saying that no one has tried to bribe her,
considering the common perception that the BIR is one of the most
corrupt offices in the government. She explains it the way her husband
an Ateneo law graduate, Daniel “Danby” Henares does: “Syempre they will
first weigh if there is a possibility that you will accept (a bribe) or
not, and if they know you won’t accept it, they won’t even try.” What if
someone tries to bribe her? “I’ll file a complaint against him or her,”
she states simply. So far there have been no death threats or threats
of any kind, and she doesn’t seem surprised because she says that she’s
just doing her job. “There’s nothing personal, I’m just making sure the
country collects the right taxes so it can spend for its needs.”
She
was the deputy commissioner for Commissioner Parayno in 2003, but she
resigned four months after he resigned along with the Hyatt 10, when she
didn’t see eye to eye with his replacement, Commissioner Bunyag. In
2009, she was helping Senator Noynoy Aquino with his presidential
campaign, and upon his election, when he asked her to come on board, she
said yes. “What made me agree to work with the President and Sec.
Purisima is that we all have a very clear sense of what is right and
what is wrong. And we all have a very clear sense of why we are into
public service.” She says that it was not hard to say yes to the
position, and in fact it would be harder to say no.
4. Comm. Kim in numbers:
100-plus: Number of forms she signs a day.
3: Number of dogs she has. Muncher the Chow-Chow, Cooper the Teacup Pomeranian, and Beamer the Golden Retriever and azkal mix.
6:
Number of cars, three of which are convertibles. “My husband’s rule is
all cars should be drivable. We use all six — well, he uses all six, not
me”
2-plus: Number of years she worked with the World
Bank as a senior private sector development specialist, during which she
was already helping the BIR on a reform project concerning our $US11
million loan.
11,000: Number of pesos take-home pay per
week. She doesn’t need an accountant since she’s a compensation income
earner, but she is the accountant of her husband.
5.
On how we should deal with corrupt government officials: “I cannot
understand why 90-plus million people cannot control 1.3 million
people.”
“You know there are only 1.3 million
public and civic officers? We are 97 million Filipinos. That’s still
90-plus million left,” she explains. She believes that one official who
might want to do something corrupt should not be able to stand a chance
against millions of citizens.
When I ask her thoughts on
the mentality of some people being reluctant to pay the correct taxes
since it might just go straight to the pockets of corrupt officials
anyway, she says: “As a citizen, we have two obligations. One, to pay
the right taxes. Two, to make sure those taxes go to the right place.”
She explains that it is our obligation to make sure that whoever we
place in office performs their duties and spends our money correctly.
And despite cases of corruption, we must still pay taxes because two
wrongs to do not make a right. She also emphasizes the importance of one
vote: “You should make your vote count by voting the right person into
office.” She strongly believes that the power of the country really
rests in all of us.
6. She believes the first-ever
impeachment of a Chief Justice is important because “there is a need
for the judiciary to reform.”
She says that all
three sectors of government should “walk in step.” She shares that they
are undertaking reforms in the Executive; that with the presence of
younger officials with newer ideas in the Legislative, there is also
reform; and that the Judiciary must also reform to complete the whole
“reform picture.” “You cannot do reform with just two branches,” she
notes. When she went into law, she already knew that she did not want to
be a litigation lawyer. She believes in structuring and advising to
prevent further mistakes, and that she’d “rather be preventive, than
curative.” Her frustration? “Sometimes, it’s not a battle of legal
rights. It’s a matter of who you know and how much you can pay, and you
keep postponing and postponing. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
7. Her husband Daniel Henares was her first and last boyfriend, and they were good friends for 20 years before they got married.
“All
of these things are sometimes destiny,” Commissioner Kim says with a
smile. She is introverted, he is extremely extroverted. She shies away
from social gatherings, he loves them. But they became the best of
friends after they met. They were in the same graduation rites at DLSU
but they never met there, and instead, met in Ateneo. How did it cross
over from friends to lovers? “My husband is so friendly, you cannot
presume that he’s interested! He’s so playboy like all Henareses!” she
exclaims laughing. He tells her that he was interested in her the day he
met her, but to this day, she shyly dismisses it as pambobola. They
lived together for a while, and she says that when he was at the lowest
point of his life, she was there for him. “Eventually we realized that
we’re for each other,” she says of their wedding in 2001. (Rep. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo is actually their wedding godmother.)
Weekends
are her time to unwind with her businessman husband, and they like
driving out of town to places like Tagaytay. “My husband always wants to
accompany me when I have out–of-country conferences, that’s also our
bonding time,” she happily shares. They do not have children but they
also have no regrets. She believes that what she is doing is also very
relevant, making a better future not just for one person, but hopefully
for an entire country.
8. Commissioner Kim enjoys activities people think are only for boys: target shooting, and plumbing and carpentry work at home.
She
was appointed BIR Commissioner in July 2010 and was given security
detail. In February 2011, she took up target shooting. “When I was
assigned, the President told me, ‘O, don’t make their life more
difficult than it is already,’” she shares. She says she wanted to take
up firing because her guards have guns, and in case something happens,
she wants to know how to shoot a gun so that she’s not a liability.” She
shares that she has all calibers of guns — 9, 40, 45 and even long
guns, which are all kept at home in a locked cabinet. Who has the key?
“Only me,” she smiles.
One of her law professors once told
her that Leos have the tendency to be very technical and mechanical and
she agrees. Commissioner Kim enjoys doing handy work at home, and even
says “Why should I call a plumber when it’s so easy to do it myself?”
The most difficult do-it-yourself job she did that she is most proud of
was a cabinet she made from scratch. “This is not the type you assemble,
walang guide, I measured, sawed the plywood, painted it, put it up,”
she shares.
9. Commissioner Kim’s top tips on handling your money:
1) Have a proper recording of what you earn and what you spend.
2)
Make sure to pay taxes diligently. Pay your legal obligations outright
so that whatever is left is for you to spend on anything you want.
3)
Invest in something that you know about, not in something someone you
know just said. Be suspicious of investments that promise too good a
return.
10. Though the length of her term will be
decided by the President, whether P-Noy or the next, her wish is to not
stay for the whole six years.
“My immediate plan
is to finish the reform that needs to be done by 2013, so that we’ll
know whether it’s working even with me not here,” she explains. She
wants to turn it over to somebody else so that there are still a few
years to make the necessary adjustments. She plans to create electronic,
interactive forms for the BIR this year. Her goal is to make everyone
realize how important it is to pay the correct taxes. She wants to
strengthen the system in the bureau “so that it is not personality-led,
instead it is institution-led reform.”
* * *
During
the course of the interview, she mentioned many times how things happen
in our life “when they are meant to.” It was always her dream to study
abroad but she followed her parents’ wishes to study college and law
here in the Philippines. But sure enough, she was able to take her
master’s abroad. She shared that time and circumstance made her and
husband Daniel realize that they were meant to be together. And now,
after being exposed to her family business and the books while growing
up, after having taken up Accountancy and Law, after having worked at
the BIR and the World Bank, she says, “Everything that happened in my
life really prepared me to take on the BIR position.” She shares that
all those experiences seem like parts of a jigsaw puzzle, unknowingly
preparing her for what life has had in store for her. “If something is
really for you, you just have to be patient. It will come.”
