ILOILO City – Deliberations and preparations are now underway relative to the implementation in Western Visayas of the Supreme Court (SC) ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia petitions.
Speaking to Panay News, Atty. Cedric Jaranilla, legal officer of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Region 6, said some national government programs may be devolved to local government units (LGUs).
In July 2018, the SC ruled in favor of the petitions filed separately by Gov. Hermilando Mandanas of Batangas and the late Rep. Enrique Garcia Jr. of Bataan questioning the computation of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of LGUs.
In its decision, the high court expanded the source of IRA to include other national taxes such as customs duties. The IRA must be computed based on all national taxes, and not just from National Internal Revenue Taxes (NIRT).
It further states that the NIRT as provided in Section 284 of the Local Government Code contravened the express provision in Section 6, Article X of the 1987 Constitution.
“Hambal sang Supreme Court, void ‘to ang pagbutang sa Local Government Code nga Internal Revenue Taxes lang. Hambal sang Constitution, national taxes, so nag-rule ang Supreme Court nga dapat indi sia restricting sa internal revenue lang but to include other national taxes,” Jaranilla explained.
This new IRA sourcing, Jaranilla added, will be very advantageous to LGUs “kay madugangan ang ila shares sa national taxes.”
“Siguro may mga 25 percent nga increase sa IRA nga ginabaton nila subong,” Jaranilla added.
At present, an LGU’s IRA comes from 40 percent of NIRT collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). With the Mandanas-Garcia ruling, it is projected that LGUs will have a 27.61 percent increase in the total IRA shares.
Aside from impact on finances, there will be a devolution of programs of the national government agencies to LGUs.
“(There will be) devolution kay siempre ang national mabuhinan man ila budget, so may mga programa man nga indi na nila masarangan kay wala na budget. So ihatag na lang sa LGUs ang mga programa nga ini, i-devolve exclusively nga mangin part na sang ila function,” Jaranilla further explained.
Jaranilla said each department or national government agency will have its own preparation depending on the effect on them.
“Sa DILG, may ara man kami nga mga programs, i-offload ‘ni sila namon considering may issue na kita sa budget, i-offload ‘na as part of our regular nga obra,”he added.
He further noted that some national government agencies like the Department of Agriculture may also have concerns about their employees.
“May mga programs ‘na sila, kay kon sa agriculture laban ang mga LGUs may ara gid na nga functions dira (sa mga programs)… laban ang ila empleyado maapektuhan dira so possible i-absorb sila sang LGU,” said Jaranila.
As of now, he added, they are just waiting for the executive order to be issued by President Rodrigo Duterte which will outline the transition activities of the national government regarding the devolution of functions relative to the implementation of the SC ruling, among others./PN
