Sen. Ralph Recto INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The internal revenue allotment (IRA) of the country’s more than 42,000 barangays will increase to more than P68.3 billion in 2014, Sen. Ralph Recto said Friday.
Recto said the allotment for barangays in the proposed 2014 budget represented an increase of P7.8 billion from the barangays’ revenue share this year.
Recto defended the barangays’ IRA amid criticisms that this is one of the “wrong reasons” why so many are interested in running in the barangay elections slated for October this year.
The former chair of the Senate committee on ways and means said the barangays’ IRA was a “necessary frontline expense.”
“The barangays are our first responders. Whether it is a fire or a youth rumble or domestic quarrel or a theft, the first distress call is sent to and responded by the barangay,” Recto said in a statement.
“When there is trouble in the neighborhood, you don’t call the Army, you call the tanods (barangay watchmen),” he added.
“Even in the field of education, the first school children go to are the daycare centers run by the barangays. Even on the road, there are more barangay traffic aides than police,” Recto added.
Recto said the allotment was a “legal entitlement, set by law.”
40 percent for LGUs
The Local Government Code provides that the national government should plow back to local governments 40 percent of internal revenue collections, which in turn is shared among local government units with barangays receiving 20 percent; provinces, 23 percent; municipalities, 34 percent, and cities, 23 percent.
Recto said the total IRA for local government units is pegged at P341.54 billion, up from P302.3 billion this year.
Recto said the current IRA share of these local governments is determined based on taxes collected by the national government three years ago.
“In short, it is a rebate to the grassroots,” Recto said.
“Barangays get just one-fourth of one percent of the national budget,” Recto said, referring to the proposed P2.268 trillion national budget for 2014.