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New City: advantage or disadvantage to Sibugay people?

 
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sibugay
Ipile�os


Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:03 am    Post subject: New City: advantage or disadvantage to Sibugay people? Reply with quote

Seems like the mayors don't want to share the pie,IRA. More cities means decentralization, which is good as the distribution of power or wealth is spread out not just centralized to one or few areas. My question now if, Ipil City would benefit the neighboring municipalities, the ordinary people in the barrios, or the province of Sibugay? Anyway, this province has no City yet. My guess, it deserves to have it's own city. But cautiously, I hope to see the advantages and disadvantages of a new City in Sibugay. ---Sibugoy


Mayors block aspiring cities

OFFICIALS of some 120 cities nationwide will stage a mass action tomorrow during their flag-raising ceremonies to protest the creation of new cities that they blamed for eroding local government incomes.

Officials of each local government unit (LGU), wearing black armbands, will read a three-page manifesto asking for a moratorium on the creation new cities.

The cities will also fly their flags at half-staff as part of the protest.

Central Visayas mayors will also meet in the office of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osme�a tomorrow to map out plans for the effort, said Toledo City Mayor Arlene Zambo.

She said that in Toledo alone, they lost P31 million in their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share with last year�s creation of 16 new cities, which included Cebu�s Carcar, Bogo and Naga.

She said that instead of a P307-million IRA share, Toledo just got P277 million.

And this year, Zambo said, there is a plan to make 27 towns into cities, which is in line with the government�s plan to make cities in provinces that do not have one.

She was referring to House Bill 24 filed by Rep. Ann Hofer (Zamboanga-Sibugay) last July.

�And that is sought even when the requirements are not met,� she said.

New cities

Section 10, Article 10 of the Constitution states that �no province, city or municipality may be created, divided, merged, abolished, or its boundary substantially altered except in accordance with the criteria established in the Local Government Code.�

A municipality may be converted into a component city if it posts an average annual income of at least P20 million for two consecutive years and if it has either one of two other requisites: 100 square kilometers of land area or a population of not less than 150,000.

These are defined in Section 450 of Chapter I, Title III and Book III of the Local Government Code.

Zambo said they will meet in Osme�a�s office because he was especially vocal against the creation of more cities.

A document from the League of Cities of the Philippines shows that Cebu City depends on the IRA for 36.46 percent of its operating funds.

The National Government last year set aside P151.6 billion as the LGUs� IRA share based on the 2006 budget.

Measly hike

In March 2007, President Arroyo told the Philippine Councilors� League that P15 billion was to be set aside as additional IRA share.

For this year, the Department of Budget and Management released P210.7 billion as IRA share for all LGUs, with P74.9 billion going to the cities.

�This means that the cities get a measly increase in IRA despite the growing needs of the cities,� read the manifesto prepared by the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP).

�We express our indignation and protest against the conversion of 16 municipalities into cities (by) the 13th Congress even if they (new cities) did not meet the income and population requirements as mandated by law,� it said.

As set by the Local Government Code of 1991, 40 percent of the national tax collection should go to the LGUs, 23 percent of which will go to the 120 cities of the country.

This means that for every P1 collected as tax, 40 centavos will be shared by the provinces, municipalities and cities.

Of the 40 centavos, 23 percent (nine centavos) will go to the cities.

Dismayed

According to the manifesto, Puerto Princesa was the one most grievously affected because instead of a P146-million IRA share, it will only get P1.7 million, or a loss of P144 million.

The city in Palawan, which supposedly has the biggest land area, depends on its IRA for 90.67 percent of its operating costs.

Puerto Princesa�s loss was due to the use of the 2000 population data in the IRA computation.

�We echo our dismay on the railroaded process of converting these 16 cities without due consideration of what is required by law. We are appalled by the inconsiderate and hasty move of the Congress�without thinking of the dire consequences it will bring to the existing cities, and more importantly, to our constituents,� stated the
manifesto.

The LCP argued that the creation of more cities adversely affects the delivery of services, and cities are burdened not just by the increase of the number of residents but also with the presence of transients like workers, students, tourists, and businessmen whom they must also serve. (RHM)
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Dodoy
Ipile�os


Joined: 24 Dec 2007
Posts: 8

PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

now I'm inpired to create a forum for this in order us Ipilenyos can say what we want....

I really love to make a website for IPIL tho...
just hope naay LGU nga mo sponsor.

@sibugay: hope naa pa laing makabasa ani.
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sibugay
Ipile�os


Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:25 pm    Post subject: Quagmire? Reply with quote

Quagmire rule
By Juan Mercado
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 14:21:00 01/29/2008

Wearing black armbands at Monday�s flag ceremonies, with flags at half mast, mayors in over 100 cities lashed out at what this space, over the last 12 months, repeatedly warned against: fleecing budgets of cities, to bankroll 16 unqualified municipios tacking up new �city hall� signboards, invites mayhem.

Coordinated by the League of Cities of the Philippines, the assault hit the 13th Congress� pre-election stampede to anoint 16 towns as cities. These newcomers didn�t meet bare-bone criteria of P100-million income and 150,000 population set by Republic Act 9009, the mayors fumed. �How can they perform as cities?�

They can�t, said �Viewpoint� (Cebu Daily News & Inquirer, June 21, 2007 ). But Congress watered down the law�s entrance fees to �the club� for Carcar, Naga, Bogo & Company. Worse, the 16 will help themselves from the common Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) larder, this column predicted. This is a �beggar-your-neighbor� policy, this column warned. It guaranteed fury.

�And so it came to pass.� Mayor Celestino Martinez prints new letterheads for Bogo City in Cebu. The bill is dumped on others, including next-door Toledo City. Instead of a P307-million IRA check, Mayor Arlene Zambo will get P277 million � a hefty P31-million cut.

From Iloilo to Davao and Jolo, IRAs are being castrated sans anesthesia. Puerto Princesa in Palawan is hemorrhaging from a P144 million cut. Instead of receiving P146 million, Mayor Edward Hagedorn may get only P1.7 million. This is a policy for upheaval.

�How did we stumble into this quagmire? We, Filipinos, have a nasty habit of meeting high performance standards by lowering them instead, noted Viewpoint (Cebu Daily News & Inquirer, Feb 12, 2007 ). Thus, Congress �exempted� 16 towns from criteria that other cities met.

This wont for self-delusion infects other sectors. Juggling statistics on class sizes �solved� the shortage in classrooms. Flunkers in National Elementary Achievement Tests wrestled the passing mark down to 50 percent. That wasn�t low enough. So, they wangled a �bonus� of 60 points. �This meant the criterion passing score was 37.5 percent,� Philippine Human Development Report notes. �Whom are they kidding?�

Many lost count in the frenzy to set up city halls. In 1991, we had 60 cities, many of dubious viability. By 2003, that had ballooned to 114. �National government�s ability to finance such local government units� is strained,� the World Bank and Asian Development Bank cautioned. �The small size of LGUs prevents them from generating their own resources.�

That didn�t faze Zamboanga Sibugay Rep. Ann Hofer. Create 28 more cities, she urges in House Bill 24. How? Staple city shingles on all provincial capitals. Forget whether they can immunize kids or collect garbage.

But add 28 to � how many? By year�s end, the roster of cities was packed with 136. And if Ms Hofer gets her way, this would crest at 164. Unlike Makati or Quezon City, few are �engines of growth.� Majority are shell cities.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya quantified what 16 more begging bowls imply. Every new city siphons P2 million from the IRA share of existing ones. Thus, the additional IRA for cities this year would shrivel to P4.7 billion from P6 billion.

If Ms Hofer�s brainstorm became law, it�d drain P56 million more. But Rep Eduardo Gullas, who authored bills converting Naga, Carcar and Bogo into cities, claims: �There�s no shrinking of IRAs, only smaller gains.� Here�s a classic for Logic 101.

All these set back reforms to use IRAs as a spur for local governments to broaden their local tax base. Lacking performance criteria, IRAs have instead become a crutch.

When one skids into a hole, the first rule is: Stop digging. So, the President should dust off the 1999 Malaca�ang moratorium on proliferation of cities. The track record is shoddy. This sensible ban crumbled. Congress punched a first hole by creating Escalante City (HB 8882).

Still, there�s little likelihood the Supreme Court will scrub, as the League asked, the 16 from the roster of cities. Congress is the culprit. And the President looked the other way. �I�m for stopping this now,� House majority floor leader Neptali Gonzales II grumbled. �Otherwise, there�ll be no end.�
Development is not a larger begging bowl. Rather, it�s �empowering people to enlarge their choices, enabling them to rise to more humane standards of living,� UN Human Development Report asserts. It works in cities like Brazil�s Curitiba � a world symbol of startling innovation.

�Cities are not problems,� says Jaime Lerner, Curitiba mayor. �They are solutions.� But only when leaders craft policies that spur citizens �to bind present action with a clear perspective on the future�. City officials must have a vision of the ideal but do what is possible today. Begin on problems that will not need decades to show results�. Only then will cities become a structure of change.�

Do our mayors have a similar vision? Or do their horizons end with IRA doles, fleeced from other cities, to fund larger payrolls?[more]
Source: globalnation(dot)inquirer(dot)net/cebudailynews/opinion/view/20080129-115534/Quagmire-rule
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