LGUs should demand bigger budget, Lacson says

Former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson called on Cebu’s mayors to demand a bigger allocation from the national government for their  cities and towns.

He spoke last Friday during  a regular meeting of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Cebu Chapter at the Quest Hotel.

Lacson presented his advocacy on budget equitability for LGUs to town mayors in the province.

In his 40-minute presentation, the former senator detailed how the national government can source P500 billion from its annual budget for development projects in the localities.

“We may not realize it and this is exactly the reason we are going around talking to local chief executives. We want to enlighten you, educate you, inform you,” he said.

With the 2013 annual budget of P2 trillion as basis, Lacson showed how to source  P500 billion by strictly following  guidelines of the Commission on Audit. The annual budget of the national government has three parts – the regular budget given to national line agencies, special purpose funds and automatic appropriations, majority of which are  lumpsums and discretionary funds.

He said P300 billion can be taken from the regular budget, P150 billion from the special purpose funds and P50 billion from automatic appropriations.

“No more discussions. The agencies should just follow the guidelines set by COA. Expenditure and procurement should not be irregular, extravagant, unnecessary, or questionable,” Lacson said.

For P500 billion, Lacson said the government can grant P1 billion to each of the country’s 81 provinces, P300 million to each city, P100 million to each town and P5 million to each barangay or village.  He said each barangay in the country needs P12 million to meet its basic needs every year.

LMP president Daanbantayan Mayor Augusto Corro, who invited Lacson to the meeting, said the scheme is “doable” but  that local governments need to be trained first to handle big amounts of money.

“I am looking forward to it, but LGUs have no capability to implement big projects yet,” he said.

Corro said he was  also concerned about corruption spreading from the national agencies to the local level. Asturias Mayor Alan Adlawan is less optimistic, saying  only the President has the power to implement it.

An online petition is seeking to raise 1 million signatures for   Lacson to run for president. Lacson didn’t mention any election plans in the forum, though, and the league didn’t take it up.