Robredo pushes development projects

Chanting “Sure na sa Zambo Sur!”, thousands of supporters from all over Zamboanga del Sur fill Plaza Luz in Pagadian City on Friday, March 15, 2022, to welcome presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo. (VP Leni Media Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo has vowed to maximize the budget windfall of local governments from the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on their share from national taxes should she become the country’s next leader.

Robredo also said her administration would set aside political partisanship in bringing development projects to areas that needed them most just like what the Office of the Vice President (OVP) had been doing since 2016.

“It’s not important who helped us [win the election] and those who did not,” Robredo said at a campaign rally in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur province, on Friday.

“Our only [intention] is to bring assistance where it is needed,” she said.

She pointed out that the OVP had implemented antipoverty projects in Zamboanga del Sur despite losing in the province in the 2016 vice presidential race.

Robredo said every municipality, city and province should benefit from the Mandanas ruling, referring to the high court’s decision in 2018 that declared that the internal revenue allotment (IRA) should come from 40 percent of all taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs.

The tribunal’s ruling, which granted the petition filed by Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas and former Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia Jr. in 2013, corrected the previous IRA allotments of local governments that based the computation only from the taxes collected by the BIR.

“We want many changes [in the government],” Robredo said. “But if we don’t change how we choose our leaders, we cannot expect any change to happen.”

RELATED STORY

Leni Robredo’s daughter: Mom fulfills duty as public servant despite OVP’s limitations