Lawmakers set to vote on Cha-cha today

MANILA, Philippines — The committee on constitutional amendments of the House of Representatives is set to vote today on Charter change (Cha-cha) or constitutional amendment proposals.      

“We will decide what recommendations of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Constitutional Reform we will include in our report to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and the plenary,” said Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, committee chairman.            

He said his committee is treating the task force’s recommendations as the administration’s Cha-cha proposals because it was President Duterte who created the group.      

He said the group conducted nationwide consultations before submitting its recommendations to his committee.              

Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año chairs the task force, with Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra as its vice chairman. It is composed of nine agencies.               

Rodriguez said many of the group’s proposals jibe with the Cha-cha suggestions contained in his committee’s initial report. 

He said the common recommendations include electing senators by region, fixing a five-year term of office for local officials and House members and lifting foreign ownership restrictions.             

“In the case of the regional election of the Senate, the task force is proposing the creation of 17 regions with two senators each for a total of 34, while in our initial report, we recommended nine regions with three senators each for a total of 27. But at least, there is consensus on the election of senators by region. In the present Senate, there is no representation from Muslim Mindanao,” he said.       

As for the term of office, Rodriguez added that the Año panel is recommending five years with one reelection, while his committee is for two reelections.           

Term limit

Elective local government officials will have better opportunities to accomplish their programs and ensure better services if their terms will go beyond the three-year limit. 

Philippine Councilors’ League (PCL) Bicol Regional chair Jesciel Richard Salceda said a three-year term of local officials limits their efforts and momentum to serve the people due to disruptions elections bring every three years.

Salceda, who is seeking the league’s top post, said he would push for a five-year term for provincial governors down to barangay captains and congressmen through constitutional reforms.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government supports the “extension of terms of local officials, which could be achieved through Charter change and ratified during the 2022 presidential elections,” he said.

He said the proposal to extend the term of local officials to four or five years, with two successive reelections, has gained widespread support among the members.

The three-term councilor of Polangui, Albay said he would also work out measures to help make the Supreme Court’s Mandanas Ruling a law or be enshrined in the Charter to ensure that local government units (LGUs) continue to receive their “just” internal revenue allotment (IRA) share. 

Salceda is pushing for the constitutionalization of the Mandanas ruling, which will increase the IRA base to P354 billion in 2022, P382 billion in 2023, P420 billion in 2024 and P466 billion in 2025. 

He stressed that the IRA sharing between the national government and LGUs has to be “finally put into law or institutionalized, something LGUs ardently need for their economic empowerment.”

Salceda is a nephew of Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, House ways and means committee chair. 

Rodriguez said the House committee on constitutional amendments is looking into an amendment in the 1987 Constitution that would increase the IRA for provinces, cities, towns and barangays.

He revealed that the proposal of the IATF on Federalism and Constitutional Reforms is to expand the IRA’s coverage and include government’s collections from customs duties as among the proposed constitutional amendments expected to be approved by the committee in deliberations set today.

“That proposal is actually based on the Supreme Court decision, which we need to institutionalize (by) including it in the proposed amendments in the Constitution,” he said.

Based on the proposal, the formula for distribution of IRA will be adjusted in such a way that richer LGUs will be given less funds while poorer LGUs will get more.

In the ruling, the SC held that the IRA of LGUs should include tariff and duties collected by the Bureau of Customs, 50 percent of value-added tax, 30 percent of national taxes collected in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 60 percent of national taxes collected from the exploitation and development of national wealth, 85 percent of excise tax from tobacco products and a portion of franchise tax under Republic Acts 6631 and 6632 (Horse Racing Laws).

Based on this formula and a study conducted by the DILG, Rodriguez said LGUs would have a total of P1.116 trillion in IRA funds in 2022, which will be P313 billion higher than the projected appropriation without the high court’s decision.

Rodriguez said the expanded IRA ruling would give provinces an additional P268 billion, while cities, towns and barangays would gain P268 billion, P397 billion and P233 billion, respectively.

He bared that the biggest beneficiary of this measure would be Camarines Sur, which will get an increase in IRA from P1.140 billion to P4.85 billion, while Makati City will get an increase of only P556 million to P2.364 billion.

The lawmaker said the town of Taytay in Rizal, on the other hand, would have P263 million more, from P856 million to P1.119 billion. – With Edu Punay