League of towns eyes inclusion of seawaters in revenue tax shares

CASIGURAN, Aurora – The leadership of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines has endorsed the proposal to include seawaters in determining the internal revenue allotment shares of local government units, a move seen to further speed up economic growth in this northern Aurora town, which is home of the Aurora Special Economic Zone.

LMP president Ramon Guico told members during its recent three-day general assembly of the league at the Manila Hotel the leadership of the league is fully supportive of the resolution calling for the inclusion of marine areas as a basis for computing of the IRA. “Of course, we are supporting it as it would benefit coastal municipalities in general,” Guico said.

The proposal started to gain ground in June during the second national conference of coastal municipalities of the Philippines on sustaining municipal fisheries and marine biodiversity held in Cebu City

During the conference sponsored by the United States Agency for International Agency Fish Project, Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines, and participated in by 397 mayors, the LMP adopted resolutions calling for institutionalization of the conference of coastal municipalities every two years, requesting the Philippine National Police to direct the provincial director in coastal provinces to assign at least two policemen per municipality for the enforcement of fishery and coastal laws and requesting BFAR to give patrol boats and other necessary paraphernalia to coastal towns in need.

Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 stipulates that the IRA should be computed on the basis of a LGU’s population, land area and income. But the law is deemed unfair to coastal municipalities which not only manage lands but also the seas.

In Aurora, the proposal, if approved and passed into law, could benefit the capital of Baler, Dingalan and this town, home of the Aurora Special Economic Zone.

Casiguran Mayor Reynaldo Bitong said that the proposal is appropriate since coastal towns have the additional responsibility of protecting its territory from poaching of resources by fishers using illegal methods. These towns have land-based concerns and need to hire fish wardens and acquire speedboats to run after violators, a concern the land-based towns do not have.

Patrolling the seas needs allocations for the fuel and maintenance of high-powered boats or else, they won’t be able to catch the offenders.

Bitong said this is the scenario in this coastal town where even foreign poachers, such as Taiwanese, encroach in local waters to catch fish.

Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo said that she would not oppose the proposal as this would redound to the overall economic benefit of the province. – MG