The Liga ng mga Barangay sa Palawan spearheaded by Board Member Ferdinand “Inan” Zaballa has concluded yesterday, December 9, their 7-day cluster conference which was attended by the barangay executives from the first district towns of Palawan and was concluded by the officials of the second and third districts.
The conference aimed to strengthen barangay coordination in regard to the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, barangay budget hearing, and to prepare for the implementation of the Supreme Court Mandanas-Garcia ruling that will give more allocation to local governments starting 2022.
The Supreme Court affirmed that local government units are entitled to a “just share” on all national taxes collected and not only from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). At present, the local government’s IRA share comes from 40 percent of national internal revenue taxes collected by the BIR.
With the Mandanas-Garcia ruling implementation in 2022, it is projected that LGUs will have a 27.61 percent increase in the overall IRA share.
With the increased budget share, barangay and local government units are expected to be responsible for the funding and delivery of the activities which have been devolved to them under Republic Act 7160, the Local Government Code of 1991, and other subsequent laws.
The conference was designed to give public officials time to review their respective priorities, strategic plans, and functions to reflect the progressive operationalization of the full devolution of basic services and facilities.
Among the functions assigned on the Local Government Code are agriculture programs, local infrastructure, environmental services, revenue mobilization, health services, maintenance of peace and order, employment facilitation, transportation, tourism, and housing.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order 138 in June transferring some of the national government’s functions to local governments, essentially implementing the Mandanas-Garcia ruling. The decision resulted from the petition made by Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas and former Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia, Jr. before the Supreme Court.