BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental’s Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson raised doubts over the proposed bill filed by Sen. Robinhood Padilla which seeks to provide local government units with enough funding for their priority development projects through a budget reform.
On top of all the questions, Lacson questioned how the senator intends to fund his proposed bill.
Last week, Padilla filed Senate Bill No. 447 that will create a Local Development Equalization Fund (LDEF) to be used strictly by local governments for development projects, activities, and programs listed in their Comprehensive Local Development Plans.
“Accordingly, this measure aims to provide an equitable distribution of wealth to LGUs to foster development with the end goal of bridging the gap between the revenue expenditure mandates of the [Local Government Code] and the General Appropriations Act,” Padilla said in a statement on Saturday.
Lacson believes the Mandanas-Garcia ruling was already the budget reform that gave LGUs more funds for development projects.
The Mandanas-Garcia ruling fully transfers or devolves the delivery of basic services to LGUs, stemming from a 2013 petition made by Governor Mandanas and former Bataan governor Enrique Garcia Jr., together with other local elective officials, before the Supreme Court (SC) on LGU shares of the IRA.
The SC affirmed the ruling in 2018, giving the LGUs a just share of all national taxes collected and not only from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) effective 2022.
According to Lacson, LGUs get their IRA from 40 percent of national internal revenue taxes collected by the BIR.
With the SC ruling, LGUs are projected to increase the IRA by 27.61 percent, said Lacson.
Under Padilla’s bill, the national government will fund the LDEF to make sure provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays can implement their three-year Comprehensive Development Plan.
The LDEF includes P500 million to P1 billion per province per year; P100 million to P200 million per city per year; P50 million to P100 million per municipality per year; and P3 million to P5 million per barangay per year.
The amount of the LDEF for each province, city or municipality will be based on a prescribed amount for each LGU depending on their class.
The bill prohibits the use of the funds for cash gifts, bonuses, food allowance, medical assistance, uniforms, supplies, meetings, communication, payment of water, light, and fuel bills; salaries or overtime pay; traveling expenses registration or participation fees in trainings and seminars; repair and maintenance work in administrative offices; acquisition of furniture, equipment, and appliances acquisition or maintenance of vehicles.
There will also be a performance-based evaluation of the use of the funds by an oversight evaluation committee to be headed by an undersecretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government.
The LDEF will be decreased for LGUs that get an “unsatisfactory” performance rating.
Two successive unsatisfactory ratings may result in the removal of the LDEF, although an LGU can reapply for it after one year.
On the other hand, the government will provide P1 billion for the capacity building of LGUs to make sure they can properly use the LDEF.
Those officials who will withhold the release of the LDEF to the LGUs will incur a penalty of one to six years and a fine of P500,000.
Those who misuse the funds will also be charged with technical malversation./PN
