IT IS A MEASURE of the weakness of our collective sense of accountability that when the head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue resigned on Oct. 30 because, as he explained it, “The BIR has a large tax collection shortfall right now, and I feel ashamed to stay,” we are all astounded. An official’s usual face-saving excuse is to cite medical reasons—as, indeed, the most clueless press secretary in recent memory tried to do, after news broke that Commissioner Sixto Esquivias IV had resigned from the BIR.

Citing the finance secretary, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde told reporters, wrongly, that Esquivias had resigned because of poor health. Esquivias did suffer from elevated blood pressure last week, when it became clear to him that the gap between his agency’s collection target and the taxes actually collected had widened into a chasm. But, as he told the Inquirer on Monday night, he resigned because he had done his “best, but apparently it was not enough. Resigning was the honorable thing to do.”

“Honor” on the lips of an unpopular administration’s chief revenue earner—this truly is a headline-grabbing news event. The revelation is so unexpected we can readily, all too eagerly, call it candor.

Let us assume that Esquivias has served the public interest by being brutally frank. That still won’t make him the first casualty of the four-year-old Lateral Attrition Law. The controversial measure mandates that “service officials and employees whose revenue collection falls short of the target by at least seven and a half percent ... with due consideration of all relevant factors affecting the level of collection” would be removed from office.

In the first nine months of the year, the BIR collected P557 billion in taxes, or P39.2 billion short of the agency’s nine-month target of P596.2 billion. That’s a shortfall of less than 7 percent, and in a country and under a government that have forgotten the meaning of delicadeza, a less circumspect revenue commissioner could have blustered his way past the attrition law.

And yet it is also not inaccurate to assert that Esquivias’ resignation should be understood, in part, as in keeping with the spirit of the law. The motive of the attrition law Esquivias summed up neatly enough: “If someone can do the job better, then why would I stay?”

Part of the problem, for both Esquivias and his successor, is the definition of “better.” At a time of severe economic stress, in the wake of two of the most destructive typhoons to hit Luzon in decades, at the beginning of rehabilitation and reconstruction work whose costs can only widen the budget deficit, it is only sound economic policy to review the revenue targets of both the BIR and the Bureau of Customs.

Are targets that assume an increase over last year’s collections realistic? The government certainly needs the additional revenue, but do its plans depend on overly optimistic assumptions? These and similar questions must be asked, even though the net result may be an even bigger budget deficit.

But what if Esquivias was not being completely candid?

This is not the first time he has resigned from the BIR; he was a deputy commissioner when he handed in his first resignation, over policy differences with the BIR chief at that time.

It is entirely conceivable—although he has denied it—that he resigned from the BIR a second time because of more policy differences.

It has been reported that, during a recent budget hearing at the Senate, Esquivias fell afoul of the temperamental Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago. She took him to task for being “so possessive” of the Large Taxpayers Service, the unit in the agency that collects taxes from the biggest companies and the wealthiest individuals.

Unfortunately for our nation’s already weak sense of accountability, Santiago was lawyering for her husband, Presidential Adviser for Revenue Enhancement Narciso Santiago Jr., who thinks the premium and lucrative LTS belongs to his office.

Is it possible that, given his behind-target performance, Esquivias thought that the transfer of the large taxpayers unit all but doomed his future in the BIR? He has denied this, quite vigorously, but sources inside the agency say otherwise. If true, then Esquivias should not feel ashamed he had to go.