Kudos to Sixto Esquivias IV for being a true public servant. He is one person who deserves the title ?honorable? before his name, something that his family should be proud of. I am not a blood relation of Esquivias but I feel some kinship with him because I am working in an accounting firm whose forte is taxation. The pressure and disappointment of beating the deadline and not meeting the target are not alien to me.

Doing exactly what others find difficult to do, like resigning from a high position because one feels his best isn?t good enough, is certainly an honorable thing to do. Others do their best to hold on to their post even if the clamor for their resignation is so intense. Even bright economists cannot do something to free our country and people from the grip of poverty, hunger and unemployment.

But there are still honest and dedicated public servants in our midst who are not holding high positions in government?honest cops, patient public school teachers, able lawyers at the Public Attorney?s Office, and volunteer nurses and doctors who dedicate their lives wholeheartedly to improve, in their own little ways, the health of people in the barrios. They, too, deserve the title ?honorable.? They are the ones who really know the true meaning of public service.

Esquivias did the right thing by resigning because he honestly felt that, with all his power and dedication, he could not serve his country and his people in these hard times; that even a demigod could not achieve the collection target imposed by the system; that the answer was not to increase tax collection but to eliminate corruption and reduce government spending, say, by traveling less and with smaller entourage and by forgoing lavish dinners.

May Esquivias? resignation enlighten other public officials and inspire them to follow what he did so that they, too, will be remembered with fondness and admiration.

?ESTELA B. VILLANUEVA,
A.S. Beltran Accounting,
3/F Old Mill Bldg. P. Campos Ave.,
Dasmariñas, Cavite