The 153 villages in seven municipalities and one component city of Kalinga will be able to implement more programs and projects with the additional P400 million under the internal revenue allotment (IRA) resulting from the Supreme Court’s Mandanas-Garcia ruling.
In a news briefing aired over PTV, Gov. Ferdinand Tubban said Kalinga is among the first three provinces in the country to submit its devolution plan for 2022.
Tubban said the provincial government will use the amount for the different offices, office personnel, capability training, and infrastructure, while all villages will get a portion of the funds for priority investment projects.
In particular, he said, the funds will 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 Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas and former Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia Jr. for spearheading this because now we can implement the programs,” he added.
In 2013, Mandanas and Garcia Jr. questioned the method used in computing the IRA given to local government units, a matter which they brought to the SC.
In 2018, the SC ruled that all national taxes, including those collected by the Bureau of Customs, should be included in the computation of the IRA given to LGUs.
In compliance with the SC decision, President Rodrigo R. Duterte in June 2021 signed Executive Order 138 directing the devolution of certain functions of the executive branch to the LGUs.
EO 138 created a Committee on Devolution to be led by the Department of Budget and Management Secretary, to implement its administrative and fiscal decentralization goals.
With the devolution spanning until 2024, Tubban said LGUs will continue to receive support from the different line agencies to aid in development.
For 2022, he said the Department of Agriculture has approved the P160M infrastructure project that will benefit the coffee, heirloom, and banana industries of Kalinga.
The fund will come from the Philippine Rural Development Project fund.
The project has a P15M counterpart fund from the provincial government. – PNA
July 27, 2024
