Article by:
Liza Agoot
BAGUIO CITY – The 153 villages in seven municipalities and one component city of Kalinga province will be able to implement more programs and projects with the additional PHP400 million funds under the internal revenue allotment (IRA) resulting from the Supreme Court's (SC) Mandanas-Garcia ruling.
Governor Ferdinand Tubban, during the Network Briefing News on Tuesday, said Kalinga was among the first three provinces in the country to submit its devolution plan for 2022.
Tubban said the provincial government would use the amount for the different offices, office personnel, capability training, aside from infrastructure, while all villages would get a portion of the funds for their priority investment projects.
In particular, he said, the funds would benefit 70 villages classified as geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.
“We have been implementing the devolved functions even without the funds from the national government but with the Mandanas ruling, the people will benefit more, considering the funds to be used aside from what the local government had been allotting,” Tubban said. “We thank officials Mandanas and Garcia for spearheading because now we can implement the programs.”
In 2013, then Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas and then Bataan Governor Enrique Garcia Jr. questioned the method used in computing the IRA being given to local government units (LGUs), a matter which they took to the high court.
In 2018, the SC ruled that all national taxes, including those collected by the Bureau of Customs (BOC), should be included in the computation of the IRA given to LGUs.
In June last year, President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed Executive Order (EO) 138 directing certain functions of the executive branch must be fully devolved to LGUs.
EO 138 created a “Committee on Devolution” (ComDev), to be led by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary, to implement its administrative and fiscal decentralization goals.
With the devolution spanning until 2024, Tubban said they would still receive support from the different line agencies to aid in development.
For 2022, he said, the Department of Agriculture has approved the PHP160 million infrastructure project that would benefit the coffee, heirloom, and banana industries of Kalinga.
The fund will come from the Philippine Rural Development Project.
The project has a PHP15 million counterpart funding from the provincial government. (PNA)
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