The incoming administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos on Sunday vowed to empower officials of the country’s 42,046 barangays who will undergo capacity-building training to ensure optimal utilization of the additional funds to be injected by the Mandanas-Garcia ruling.
Executive Secretary-designate Vic D. Rodriguez stressed that barangay governance would further improve with the additional funds that the implementation of the ruling would provide.
Rodriguez said that when he was still a barangay councilor, “our budget was only P4 million for Meralco” and many barangays cannot pay for their monthly electricity.
He said back then, funds for basic services were hard to come by.
However, he said barangays have evolved as more funds become more available.
“The evolution of barangay governance is very good. Barangays will have more funds because of the Mandanas-Garcia ruling,” he said.
Rodriguez further noted that barangay officials in Quezon City have already been undergoing such series of training, but not all barangays have the financial capacity.
He assured, that incoming Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. and incoming Undersecretary Felicito “Chito” Valmocina, who also boasts of a lengthy experience as village leader would ensure that all barangay officials nationwide will undergo capacity-building training.
“I know you’ve been doing a lot of capability-building seminars but, not all barangays are fortunate like you here in Quezon City… but those who haven’t, with the incoming DILG Secretary Abalos, you’ll be in very good hands,” he pointed out.
“With Usec. Chito, you will have training, capacity-building on how to better use those funds that will be coming to your respective barangays and respective jurisdictions,” he said.
At present, LGUs’ IRA comes from 40 percent of the national internal revenue taxes collected by the BIR.
With the Mandanas-Garcia ruling implementation this year, it is projected that LGUs will have a 27.61 percent increase in the total IRA shares.
During the campaign, Marcos assured barangay officials that they would have a champion should he win, adding he would bat for the implementation of the provisions of the Local Government Code that provide benefits for barangay officials that have not been fulfilled due to a lack of sufficient funds.
