THE National Government cannot impose conditions on the grant of allowances by a local government to judges, prosecutors, police, teachers and other national employees and officials assigned to the locality.
There is only one condition: finances of the LGU will allow it. There used to be guidelines imposed by such agencies as the Department of Budget and Management. They were struck down by the Supreme Court in Dadole et al vs. Commission on Audit (GR #125350, Dec. 3, 2002), which ruled that the statutory power of the LGU cannot be so restricted as to violate the “autonomous authority” of the local government.
The restriction before was on the amount. The SC said the allowances cannot be made uniform. It is up to the LGU to fix the sum it can afford. A right provided by the Local Government Code and propped up by the Constitution’s grant of local autonomy.
Must be a voter
But how about imposing another condition, namely that the recipient must be a voter in the city where is assigned and gets the allowance? That is territory not yet charted by jurisprudence. Owner of the funds -- in this case Cebu City, with a proposed budget of P65 million for peace and order -- can set the condition that it wants.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña has reportedly asked the City Council to tack on the condition that the recipient police officer must be a voter in the city for him to qualify for a stipend of from P2,500 to P6,000 each, depending upon rank.
Which promptly raises two questions: (a) whether the police is being targeted in reprisal because the mayor is currently entangled with PNP officials in the controversy over illegal killings, and (b) how being a registered voter in the locality has anything to do with service, which is supposedly the basis for the fund aid.
Not just cops
There is now talk that the condition will apply to everyone getting the dole-out from City Hall; the police are not being singled out. Still the seeming impropriety of the condition hangs on: namely, it is totally unrelated to individual performance of the grantee.
The partisan and selfish interest is that a voter tends to repay the favor by voting for the giver of the money. No compulsion, true, but the innate sense of gratitude of Filipinos is suspiciously being tapped.
Suspicious move
The allowances are supposed to improve the service given by national employees to the community where they are stationed. The lawmakers did not consider adroitness of politicians to make principles of general welfare work to their advantage.
Allowances for judges and prosecutors were used before to coax out a favorable ruling in cases involving the LGU or its officials. Who was that public official who ordered the allowance withheld from a judge who decided a case against the official? Some prosecutors just file a case in court, though it may be dismissed outright, because they fear wrath of the mayor or governor.
City Hall’s planned “must-be-a-voter” condition may be innocent. Yet in the light of past machinations and deviousness of many politicians, it is fraught with danger of being used for partisan ends.