Bigger share of IRA to local gov’t units pushed

ON THE BEAT

Myds Supnad

Bataan Rep. Enrique "Tet" Garcia, 2nd district, said they are not abandoning quest for a bigger share of Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) intended for local government units as legal issue has been elevated to Supreme Court.

In an impromptu interview with this writer, Garcia said he filed a mandamus before SC, seeking what he called equal distribution of IRA to LGUs.

A former governor for more than 10 years, Garcia is known to be a legal fighter after he fought before the SC the retention of the multi billion Petrochemical Plant in Bataan after then Pres. Corazon Aquino and other local  officials of Bataan pressed Garcia to transfer the Petrochemical Plant in Batangas.

Owing to his controversial legal fight before SC, Garcia won that resulted to establishment of Petrochem in Bataan which is now one of the major sources of income through taxes by the province.

As this developed, Local government units should not abandon efforts to seek a bigger share in the national taxes even if the current administration has flatly rejected such proposals, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. advised the country’s vice governors and other local officials.

Speaking at the recent 62nd national assembly of the League of Vice Governors of the Philippines in Tuguegarao City, Marcos said LGUs should work together to press for their reasonable share in the IRA.

 “Let us carefully plan on what else we can do so that in the coming years we can ensure that local governments will be given the priority and importance they truly deserve,” Marcos said.

Marcos, chairman of the Senate committee on local government, is supporting initiatives in the Senate to increase the IRA share of LGUs.

One proposal is to increase the current 40-60 percent sharing scheme in favor of national government to a 50-50 split.

Another proposal is to increase the tax base by including in the computation of IRA not only on all national taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, but also the excise taxes and value-added taxes collected by the Bureau of Customs, estimated at P192 billion annually.

Marcos noted Malacañang is apparently cold to proposals and distrusts local government units.

He cited reports that in the general assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) last April that the President rejected LMP’s request to certify as urgent a bill seeking to expand the tax base and increase the shares of local governments from 40 to 50 percent of the national taxes.

Worse, Marcos said government failed to release the 2013 IRA share of LGUs, amounting to over P300 billion.

Despite this, Marcos said Malacañang admitted underspending around P303 billion of the 2014 budget, which many economists tagged as culprit in economic slowdown.

According to the National Economic Development Authority, the economy grew by only 5.2 percent during the first quarter of the year, the slowest growth posted since 2012.

If these funds had been released to LGUs, these could have gone into projects that could have, in turn, contributed to economic growth.

Marcos, who served as Ilocos Norte governor for three terms, thinks the attitude of Malacañang towards LGUs is due to the fact that very few national leaders have had experience as local government officials.

“Let us work together and I am sure we can put a stop to this,” Marcos said.

 “We can once again bring forward local government and show what local government can do, show the many things that local governments can do better than the national government, and in that way play our part in the progress and the growth of the economy of our country. That is what I dream for,” he added.