MANILA, Philippines -- City mayors went to Malacañang on Monday to ask for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s help over the impending slash of their Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA) this year.

In a statement, the League of Cities of the Philippines, led by Manadaluyong Mayor Benjamin Abalos Jr., appealed to the President to find other sources of funding to cover the expected cut in the IRA of each city.

The IRA is the share of provinces, cities, municipalities and barangay (villages) from national tax collections.

?I am very hopeful that the President will be able to help the current plight of cities to cushion the impact of the decrease in their IRA share,? Abalos said.

?We need to do something fast because time is not on our side. We have a public to serve and their welfare is our top priority. All cities are adversely affected by this and we can?t just let this happen. Million of lives are at stake,? he said.

The group cited the Department of Budget and Management?s computation of the 2008 distribution of IRA, which showed a staggering decrease in the share of each city.

While the computed IRA for 2008 was P210.7 billion or a 15 percent increase from last year?s P183.9 billion, the group said each existing city would only be getting an average of 4.7 percent raise from their share.

And the mayors blamed this huge drop of their share to the conversion of 16 towns into new cities in 2007.

?Without the conversion, the existing cities would be getting an average increase of around 14 percent,? the group said in the statement.

The city government of Puerto Princesa, for instance, might only get an increase of P1.7 million this year instead of P146.1 million share or a 15-percent increase from last year?s IRA.

Abalos also noted that the IRA per capita of cities had been declining.

In 1996, Abalos said the IRA per capita for Philippines cities was 20 percent higher than that of provinces and municipalities but this situation has been reversed.

?Today, the IRA per capita for Philippine cities is now 30 percent lower than the IRA per capita of provinces and municipalities,? he pointed out.