Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas expressed support for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s statement amending Executive Order (EO) No. 138 transferring certain functions to local government units (LGUs).
President Marcos made the announcement on Friday during the first Local Government Summit 2024 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
In an interview on Sunday, Mandanas thanked the national government for its sincere intention to fully implement the law through greater decentralization of fiscal policy.
“EO 138 really needs to be clarified, it really should be amended if not repealed. The equitable share of LGUs has long been enshrined in our 1987 Constitution, mandated in the Local Government Code (LGC) and was even upheld by the Supreme Court (SC) in 2019,” he told the Manila Standard.
Mandanas cited Article 10, Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution, which provides that “local government units shall receive a fair share of national taxes as determined by law and paid to them automatically.”
He added that the LGC clearly provides that the LGUs’ share will be “automatically and directly released” and no further appropriations by Congress will be required.
In the landmark “Mandanas ruling,” the Supreme Court stated that the determination of the LGUs’ fair share should not be based only on national taxes, but on all national taxes.
Mandanas, who also became chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said the positive development was necessary to promote good governance in the country by making the delivery of basic services more efficient.
He pointed out that LGUs are “closer to the people” and can therefore more effectively address issues such as health care, education, livelihoods, agriculture, tourism, and disaster relief efforts.
He said the expansion of basic government services will later contribute to the economic development of the country’s various provinces and regions.
Meanwhile, Dr. Froilan Calilung, Director of the Local Government Development Institute, said that “decentralization is a crucial step in advancing the supposedly positive steps towards full decentralization.”
“This is really something we have been waiting for, especially Governor Mandanas, because it should have been enacted a long time ago. I hope that by then sufficient measures will have been taken to mitigate any possible backlash,” Calilung said.
He added that strengthening the financial capacity of LGUs will lead to better public services and will also benefit the ideals of the administration.
The lifting of the ban on EO 138 shows the Marcos administration’s commitment to empowering LGUs and can be seen as an attempt to strengthen the country’s decentralization, he said.
He, however, warned that this is a crucial situation because “although the initial response is good, it will still depend on how receptive the LGUs are to the changes to be made.”
