IRA shares certain despite anomalies

Local government units are assured of continued Internal Revenue Allotment shares based on the 2001 land area certified by the Land Management Bureau despite reports of anomalies that some towns registered increased in land areas from 30 to over 1,350 percent.

Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes said that the decision was reached after the Oversight Committee on Devolution junked the 2004 LMB master list because of complaints raised by LGUs, with land areas that were reportedly decreased, against those that had been increased under questionable circumstances.

Reyes said that an OCD task force has been created to look into reported anomalies at the LMB and its counterpart in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao where some towns registered increase in land areas from 30 to more than 1,350 percent.

Under the provisions of the Local Government Code of 1991, LGUs except the barangays, receive their IRAs based on the formula which provides 50 percent for population, 25 percent for land area and 25 percent equal sharing for 79 provinces, 117 cities and 1,501 municipalities.

Reyes said that the OCD resolution, approved by representatives in Congress, the LGU institutional leagues and the finance department in addition to the Department of Budget and Management and the DILG, finally provides a resolution to the pestering issue of IRA shares of affected LGUs.

The DILG cited that Palayan City in the province of Nueva Ecija is one of the LGUs badly hit by a significant decrease in its land area.

"What compounds it," Reyes explained, "was the piece-meal submission by the LMB of individual certifications correcting the area measurements in the 2004 certified master list without authoritative bases that rendered doubtful the said document."

It was also agreed that part of the collections of the Bureau of Customs in the Value Added Tax should be included in factoring the IRA shares in the future, said Reyes, adding that the additional funds could be channeled to healthcare services devolved to LGUs.

The DILG head said notwithstanding the unresolved issues in the 2004 master list, the DBM released the IRA shares of LGUs for the current fiscal year in view of the "no hold, no lien" policy mandated by the local government code.

Mayor Ramon Guico, Jr. of Binalonan, Pangasinan, the national president of the 1,501-strong League of Municipalities of the Philippines, said the OCD resolution would enable the town mayors to proceed with their respective blueprints for development.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas, president of the League of Cities, also expressed elation over Reyes' announcement, saying the rectification of the land measurement is long overdue.

"It's a pity if the land area of a certain LGU is terribly decreased without the LGU itself knowing it. The OCD resolution is very timely." - Garry B. Lao