‘Economic federalism’ possible even without Cha-cha, says Cayetano

MANILA, Philippines — “Economic federalism” is still possible even if the proposed Charter change (Cha-cha) will not prosper due to the coronavirus pandemic, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said Friday.

Cayetano admitted that timing is a question in pushing for Cha-cha especially that the country continues to grapple with the pandemic, thus making calling for a plebiscite difficult.

However, Cayetano said that federalism, which is among proposals under Cha-cha, could somehow be realized through some amendments to the Local Government Code.

“We can actually revise the Internal Revenue Allotment Code and many other portions of the Local Government Code to bring us closer to economic federalism,” Cayetano said.

“So what we will do is we will multi-task. We will continue discussing Cha-cha in the committee level, not in plenary, and then we will push for the approval of these pieces of legislation,” he added.

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) earlier said that members of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) had passed a resolution seeking amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

The resolution contains the mayors’ proposed amendments such as the institutionalization of the Mandanas ruling of the Supreme Court in the nation’s charter.

Cayetano explained that the Mandanas ruling gives LGUs more internal revenue allotments or shares of national taxes by expanding the definition of “internal revenues” to include not only collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) but other national imposts as well, like customs duties.

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who chairs the House committee on constitutional amendments, said that the meeting on the mayors’ proposal could happen within the first two weeks of Congress’ second regular session.

Cayetano reiterated that Cha-cha is not the current priority of the lower chamber but said that he would not stop Rodriguez’s committee from tackling the controversial issue.

READ: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1309334/cayetano-no-doubt-cha-cha-is-needed-but-question-is-its-timing

“So if we can solve COVID-19 by next month and we’re up on our feet next January, February, then we can talk about Cha-cha,” the House Speaker said.