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Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Mayors mull donating month's pay to gov't
By Albert B. Lacanlale
BACOLOR -- Heads of local governments in Pampanga are planning to donate a month's salary to the National Government as their way of helping the country deal with a fiscal crisis.
Pampanga Mayors' League (PML) executive vice president Romeo "Buddy" Dungca Jr. said this was one of the issues raised during a recent meeting of the group in the City of San Fernando.
Dungca said the idea was strongly supported by Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda, PML president, who also showed enthusiasm to help the Arroyo administration weather the feared fiscal crisis.
Pineda, Dungca said, has also called on the members of the PML to come up with a resolution urging their counterparts in the country to do the same, and set aside a month of their salary to raise funds for the government.
As officials of the executive branch, mayors are clustered with other government positions under Grade 27, which receives a pay of about P26,000 per month, or higher under the Compensation and Position Classification Act of 1989 (Republic Act 6758).
If the mayors of the 116 cities and 1,494 municipalities in the country would donate a month's worth of their salary, they could easily pool in at least P41.86 million.
"What if not only the mayors, but all of the other officials in the country would follow in donating even just as much as one month of their salaries?" Dungca said.
Dungca said PML president Pineda and the rest of the mayors in the province are concerned about the looming financial crisis.
He said that in the long run, even the local government units would suffer once a fiscal crisis broke out.
Government economic managers proposed the freezing of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) shares of local governments at the 2004 level.
This town, which only receives a meager P19 million in IRA per year, would be facing a tighter budget in 2005 since local officials expect more residents, who were not included in the computation of IRA, to reestablish residency in this town.
"If the mayors, and other officials to that effect, would not put their acts together in assisting the ailing government, then everybody is bound to feel the setbacks of this financial problem," Dungca said.
(September 22, 2004 issue)
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