For greater fiscal autonomy of LGUs

NEWLY confirmed Secretary Juan Victor Remulla Jr., who was an elective local official for nearly three decades prior to his Cabinet posting, is backing calls in the Congress for a review of the Local Government Code (LGC) with an eye to strengthening the fiscal autonomy of local government units (LGUs) as well as the streamlining of the glut of bureaucratic orders that he himself believes only complicates the work of LGU executives.

Remulla told the Commission on Appointments (CA) during its confirmation hearing on his ad interim appointment as Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) that a review of the LGC of 1991 is in order, given the implementation of the Supreme Court (SC)’s 2018 decision on the Mandanas-Garcia case, and new developments such as the worsening climate-induced natural calamities that now compel LGU officials to spend more on disaster response.

Camarines Sur Rep. and CA majority leader LRay Villafuerte said that Remulla also backed a management overhaul of our prison system to improve the conditions of local jails along with a review of DILG orders or directives for LGUs, which, in his experience as governor for 11 years, need to be streamlined to actually make it easier for local government executives to do their jobs.

Remulla was first elected as a local official when he ran—and won—as a member of Cavite’s Sanggunian or provincial legislative board in 1995. He then served as vice governor and, later, as governor, until last October, when President Marcos appointed him DILG Secretary in place of Benjamin Abalos Jr., who resigned to run for senator in next year’s polls.

Villafuerte, who is president of the National Unity Party (NUP), explained that in its 2018 decision on the Mandanas-Garcia case, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that the “just share” of LGUs from national taxes is not limited to internal revenue tax collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and must include customs duty collections of the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

In light of the expanded tax share of local governments, the total outlay due them in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA) or national budget has, following the SC’s 2018 ruling, been renamed as the “National Tax Allocation” share of LGUs or NTA in lieu of the previous “Internal Revenue Allotment” or IRA share, said Villafuerte.

According to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), LGUs are getting an NTA share of P1.034 trillion next year—comprising P237.96 billion for provinces, P239.05 billion for cities, P350.68 billion for municipalities, and P206.92 billion for the barangays.

Of their respective NTA shares, the LGUs are required to set aside 20% for development projects, and 5% for their Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Funds.

Villafuerte said that he and four more CA members who had served as LGU officials are happy that the President chose an elected local chief executive as DILG chief.

He was referring to Surigao Rep. Johnny Pimentel, Bataan Rep. Albert Raymond Garcia and Camiguin Rep. Jurdin Jesus Romualdez who had served as governors of their respective provinces, and Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla who was once mayor of Bacoor City.

“We are happy that the leadership of the DILG galing po sa LGU kasi importante po iyan,” Villafuerte said.

“Based on the Supreme Court decision, malinaw naman na yung all revenues, yung computation must be based on all revenues, whether internal or external. But since the law was passed, nag-base lang dun sa internal, hindi yung external, but that has been resolved,” Villafuerte said.

“Ang nakakatakot lang is the past administration based on fiscal limitation. As the Supreme Court decided to give more resources to the LGUs, ang national government naman planned in the past to devolve more functions to the local governments, which I think is detrimental,” he said, as LGUs lack the resources to, for example, take care of irrigation facilities and building schools.

Villafuerte said he was elated, too, that the first statement of Remulla as DILG Secretary was that he would base promotions in the Philippine National Police (PNP) in lieu of the padrino system, as this boosted morale.

“This was a laudable statement as it boosted the morale of the PNP … and we know that he (Remulla) has the courage to implement it,” Villafuerte said.

When Villafuerte asked Remulla on whether he supports measures on further strengthening local autonomy through the issuance of new DILG orders or proposed amendatory laws in the Congress to the LGC, the DILG Secretary said he “totally agrees,” considering that he comes from a province—Cavite—of 5 million people where the resources available to the provincial government are not enough to cover the actual needs of the local population.

Even though Cavite’s provincial budget is P6.7 billion, this was not enough to fully serve the needs of 5 million people, such that the province’s outlay was one of the country’s lowest on a per-capita basis.

In the course of the provincial government’s service to 5 million people after the Mandanas-Garcia ruling that devolved health, education and other functions to LGUs, the P6.7 billion “wasn’t enough for us to sustain the needs of the province. So, I would greatly support any amendments in order to strengthen further the capacities of the local government,” Remulla said.

Remulla recalled that during the recent streak of six cyclones, Villafuerte’s CamSur was among severe tropical storm Kristine’s hardest-hit areas, and the local government was the first to respond to the affected people, “ but after two days your resources started to dwindle and if you had more resources that are at your disposal, then responding to such emergencies would have been easier. So, I fully support that.”

The CamSur congressman agreed with Remulla that LGUs really do need bigger funding because local governments “are faced with unlimited problems but with limited resources … and when the LGC was approved, the health, agriculture and environment functions were devolved … but the funding was not. So that’s why there has been a decline in health, agriculture, and environmental services.”

Villafuerte, who had served as three-term governor, said one of his proposed LGC amendments is to compute the LGUs tax share for a given GAA based not on total tax collections on the preceding three years but on just two years before it.

In response, Remulla said: “The Local Government Code is a 22-year old law which needs a lot of study, especially in terms of the formulation of the Internal Revenue Allotment. I fully support that it would help the local governments perform better, respond better, and have more resources at their disposal, especially with times like this.”

When Villafuerte asked Remulla what he intends to do with the huge number of memorandum circulars (MCs) that the DILG issue for LGU compliance, the latter said that when he was Cavite governor, he would receive MCs that “further complicate our work.”

“As of last count I think we had in my 11 years (as governor) 2,000 MCs from the DILG and a lot of that I am having reviewed in order to streamline and to remove … features of those memorandum circulars,” Remulla said. “A lot of them are concerned with the smallest to the most useless and things that governors and mayors shouldn’t be concerned about. We are currently reviewing them and going to modify them.”

Villafuerte noted that when Kristine caused worse-than-expected devastation after dumping 900 millimeters (mm) of rainfall in his province—or double the volume unleashed by typhoon Ondoy in 2009—Remulla was among the first officials to offer help to him and other CamSur officials, and was quick to send the very next day the requested rubber boats for the rescue and relief operations.

Having been a governor, too, Villafuerte said it was “rare” for a DILG Secretary to call local officials several times before, during and after calamities to ask what kinds of assistance that the Department could extend to them.

“So, I am very confident that Secretary Jonvic (Remulla) being at the helm of the DILG alam niya po ang gagawin niya and I’m confident that along the way he will be able to solve problems facing our country under his leadership,” said Villafuerte, who had endorsed in the earlier CA committee hearing the confirmation by this bicameral body of Remulla’s DILG posting.

When Sen. Risa Hontiveros asked Remulla about his priorities at the DILG, he said that, “The most obvious is we have to examine how the IRA is computed. I think everyone here who has served in local government sees a great question mark every time an IRA is passed down to a province.”

“Number two, I think (is that) the governors should be given a greater role in managing the affairs of the province, especially in terms of waste management. If you look at the LGC, it is the responsibility of a mayor for waste management. However, you have fourth and fifth class municipalities that have to collect and dispose of their waste by themselves,” he said.

Remulla said that in Cavite, “What we have done is that I personally took charge of developing a centralized landfill. It will be up and running by the first week of July. And I took cognizance of the matter, despite it not being in my purview as governor, in order that … so that all LGUs in my province would be coordinated …”

As for local jails, Villafuerte said, these facilities should be nationalized because the lack of LGU funds to maintain them has led to “deteriorated and dilapidated” prisons.

‘If you will look at the jail system in the country … deteriorated, dilapidated … kasi wala naman talagang pera ang local governments to upgrade and maintain them,” Villafuerte said. “So the suggestion is, instead of having provincial jails and city jails, siguro magkaron na lang ng regional jails run professionally by the BJMP (Bureau of Jail Management and Penology) …Let the experts run the jails.”

To which, Remulla replied: “ I totally agree.”

But with the limited BJMP funds, Batangas Rep. Mario Vittorio Mariño asked Remulla about his plans on improving the local jails.

“The budget allocated for the BJMP is very limited, so we always have to work in consonance with the local governments to improve their facilities,” Remulla said. “With the resources we have now, we plan to improve first those that need it most, especially in the HUCs (highly urbanized cities), which are heavily congested. But we have to work in consonance with the local government to make things better.”

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ryan Ponce Pacpaco