Imus City in Cavite embraced its native son and Partido Reporma standard bearer Senator Panfilo Lacson on Friday as local leaders led by Mayor Emmanuel “Manny” Maliksi endorsed his candidacy for president in the 2022 national elections.
Maliksi said Lacson, his “ninong” (godfather), was the hope the country was waiting for to combat corruption and poverty.
Lacson thanked Mayor Manny—the son of his dear friend and former Cavite Governor Erineo “Ayong” Maliksi who died last February 24 and vowed to honor his fellow Imusenos with the “last chapter” of his more than 50 years in public service, including 18 as a senator.
The senator later received signatures of support for his candidacy from Maliksi and city councilors as he swore in new members of Partido Reporma in an induction ceremony.
Lacson also explained his Budget Reform Advocacy for Village Empowerment (BRAVE) initiative, the centerpiece program of his presidential candidacy for the 2022 national elections.
He said the BRAVE program would ensure funds from the national government to come down to even the remotest villages across the country. This would allow even barangays in sixth-class municipalities to have funds to look forward to and to spend on their own development.
Lacson and his running mate, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, stressed that local government units (LGUs) can be empowered to help in the fight against COVID-19.
They said governors and mayors could play a greater role in fighting COVID-19, as they first proposed at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The former police chief noted the BRAVE program would dovetail with the recent Mandanas ruling from the Supreme Court, which mandates that LGUs should receive 40 percent of all national taxes, not just internal revenue taxes — giving more funds to local governments to spend for their projects.
Under BRAVE, Lacson said barangays could expect P3 million to P5 million a year, towns and cities P100 million, and provinces P1 billion annually from the national budget. national government.
But Lacson said the town could only spend 20 percent of its IRA on development projects, as the rest of the fund was already earmarked for other purposes – leaving the LGUs’ hands tied. “At ilan pang 5th or 6th-class municipalities meron sa bansa? Hindi na sila makakahabol pa kung ganito,” the senator said.
He noted that President Rodrigo Duterte also signed Executive Order 138 that would execute the Mandanas ruling in phases, with the first phase set next year and to be fully implemented by 2024.
However, he said there were still funding bottlenecks due to corruption and what he termed “jurisdictional convergence,” where the national government would take over projects that would cross over adjacent provinces.
Lacson noted that the World Bank estimated that up to 20 percent of the Philippines’ annual budget was lost to corruption – and with the 2022 budget proposed at Php5 trillion, that means a potential Php1 trillion in lost funds for the people.
As for jurisdictional convergence, he cited a recent Senate budget hearing with the Department of Public Works and Highways, where the agency said their allocation for local projects was cut by 89 percent.
If elected in the upcoming elections, Lacson and Sotto committed to push for intensified participation of LGUs.
Earlier, Lacson agreed with the move to end the curfew for adults in Metro Manila and increase the capacity for public transport.
But he noted that LGUs could be even more involved as he reminded the national government to keep up its containment strategy against the coronavirus disease.
“Their move is right, but we have long been pushing for the wider involvement of LGUs and containment strategy hindi dapat mawala sa gobyerno at sa mga Pilipino, in particular the LGUs,” the senator said.
He said it was still important to trace, test and treat COVID-19 infections while ramping up the vaccination drive, especially with over 34 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines arriving recently.
Recalling that the National Economic and Development Authority projected estimated losses of Php41 trillion to the economy owing to the prolonged lockdowns to contain the spread of COVID-19, Lacson said this is a great opportunity to open the economy.
Lacson said the LGUs could roll out vaccines faster especially since most local chief executives feared the jabs would expire within 1 to 3 months.
As for the slow rollout of vaccines by LGUs, which reportedly irked President Rodrigo Duterte, Sotto said the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) should be careful in implementing the Chief Executive’s orders to sanction governors and mayors for lagging inoculations in their areas.
“On the DILG order, baka sinabi lang, pero kung may circular, all (the department) has to do is to be cautious in implementing it, local officials are under them after all,” added Sotto, who once was vice mayor of Quezon City.