CAGAYAN de Oro Second District Representative Rufus Rodriguez said over the weekend that several members of the House committee on constitutional amendments are supporting the proposal to raise the internal revenue allotment (IRA) for provinces, cities, towns and villages.
Rodriguez said the committee is considering the inclusion in its Charter change recommendations of a provision on larger IRA for local government units throughout the country.
The Kagay-anon lawmaker, who chairs the committee, added he and other members are supporting the proposal of the administration's Inter-Agency Task Force on Constitutional Reforms for a larger IRA for LGUs.
"LGUs are entitled to it. That is what the Supreme Court has declared in the Mandanas case," he said, referring to a petition filed by Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas.
Rodriguez said the committee will convene next week to vote on what proposals of the task force it would include in its Cha-Cha report, which will be submitted to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
The task force was formed by President Rodrigo Duterte to come up with the administration's Cha-Cha recommendations. It is composed of nine agencies chaired by Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano.
Rodriguez said based on the study of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), LGUs would have a total of P1.116 trillion in IRA in 2022 with the SC ruling, or more than P313 billion if their allocations were computed without the high court's decision.
"For this year, P649 billion is appropriated in the national budget as the LGUs' IRA, which represents the share of local governments from national taxes," Rodriguez said.
At present, IRA is computed based on "internal revenue taxes" or those collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), excluding Bureau of Customs collections.
"The SC ruling expanded the base to include not only taxes collected by the BIR but Customs as well, and other impositions, including half of value added tax from autonomous Muslim region, 60 percent of levies from the exploitation of natural wealth, and half of VAT on the sale of goods and properties," Rodriguez said.
"Citing the DILG study, the expanded IRA ruling would give provinces an additional P268 billion, while cities towns and barangays would gain P268 billion, P397 billion and P233 billion, respectively," he added.
Rodriguez said the Department of Finance has opposed the immediate implementation of the SC ruling because of its negative impact on the country's finances.
He added among the other Cha-Cha proposals of the DILG-led task force are provisions against political dynasties and turncoats, election of senators by region, five-year term for members of the House of Representatives and local officials, lifting of limitations on foreign investments and state subsidy for political parties.
Most of the administration group's proposed constitutional amendments jibe with those contained in its committee's initial report, Rodriguez said.