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Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Charter change can affect revenue share: Nunca
By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan
IF THE proposed Charter Change pushes through, paving the way to a change in the country's political system from presidential to parliamentary form, the losers will be the local government units (LGUs).
So said Rodolfo "Babes" Alvarez, convenor of the Negrenses United, Never to Constituent Assembly (Nunca).
He said this is based on the 2006 proposed national budget amounting to about P1.053 trillion as recently presented by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
If everything will be materialized and approved later, the LGUs will be "shortchanged" of their shares in the Internal Revenue Allotment or IRA allocation.
Instead of the usual 40 percent, the LGUs will only be receiving P15.8 percent, Alvarez stressed.
In his presentation of the breakdown of the proposed budget by expense class, the P1.053 trillion budget shall be distributed into three--personal services, P330.5 billion or 31.4 percent; maintenance and other operating expenses, P616.7 billion or P58.6 percent, and; capital outlays and net lending, P106 billion or 10 percent.
Of the P616.7 billion allocation for the MOOE, Alvarez said P340 billion, or 32.2 percent, will go to debt servicing, while only P166.5 billion, or 15.8 percent, will go to local government units representing their IRA share.
This is why Alvarez and the rest at NUNCA are actively campaigning for the junking of the Constituents' Assembly (ConAss).
Because if the Philippine Constitution is changed, Alvarez said there will be no elections in 2007. Instead, a referendum for a "yes" or "no" to change the Constitution will be held.
He said all elected local officials will then be able to stay in power until 2010.
According to Alvarez and their group, Centro Federal, the Philippines should instead adopt a federal structure of government in order to advance as a nation.
Centro Federal is recommending the constitutional convention as the best vehicle to change the 1987 Constitution rather than through the ConAss.
(December 14, 2005 issue)
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