Gratis et amore

National government enabled, local government unit (LGU) led. This is the guiding principle of the IATF response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This billing bargain recognizes the LGU’s role as frontliners of the whole of government response.

But being in the lead has its price. It has led to enormous pressure on local budgets. Provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays have had to dig deep into their shallow pockets to defray the cost of their responses.

Just how can this remain sustainable when revenues are down? Local taxes have not been paid on time and capacities to pay are severely compromised. Taxes make up 70 percent of LGU revenues. The largest component is the business tax followed by real property taxes.

Per the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), the largest slice of local budget pies, pre COVID-19, was general public services (overhead) at 54 percent. As for social services comprised of expenditures on Health, Education, Nutrition and Population Control, Labor and Employment, Housing and Community Development, and Social Services and Social Welfare, the average was 26 percent. Unsurprisingly, for the first two quarters of 2020, local social services budgets have rocketed exponentially.

LGUs are hemorrhaging cash. How can they be the stabilizing influence for us all with the budget shortfalls and the specter of years of recovery?

Arm against the harm. At the start of the year, the BLGF increased collection targets 19 percent. From 2019’s P257.58 billion up to P307.08 billion to optimize local taxing and revenue powers. But this week’s guidance is for LGUs to lower targets by 30 percent or down to P214.96 billion.

We’ve been anxious about the pandemic’s effects on the national economy. We are terrified of the coming successive quarterly contraction. Given the integration of LGUs in the National Strategy as implementor, its disconcerting that in the PH-PROGRESO recovery roadmaps, not much is written on what to expect from the national government.

Yes, there was that one time financial assistance, the Bayanihan Grant to Cities and Municipalities (BGCM) amounting to P30.8 billion. But other than that, it’s either authorized drawdowns of their own money (IRA) or lifting the cap over their disaster risk management quick response funds or easy access to standby loan facilities. In the US, the CARES package provides for standby aid to states and local governments of $150 billion (P7.5 trillion). The US Congress wants to raise this to $1 trillion.

When all else fails, there’s always the last resort move of selling local patrimonial properties. It was PRRD’s DNA as former Mayor that surely led to that idea of selling the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

This is where the renewed call for the monetization of the IRA windfall from the Mandanas Supreme Court decision comes in. The economic team resisted previous efforts of LGUs to advance their enormous share of the expanded IRA on the fear of widening the deficit. Given that the pandemic has already exploded the deficit and that LGUs are tasked to deliver above and beyond their capacities to give, they should be appropriately armed for the fight.

G.O.A.T. The Michael Jordan Netflix documentary has triggered worldwide debate on just who is the greatest of all time. It is always difficult to reach a consensus on GOATs because this is a generational choice. Basketball has been played on the world stage for decades. So has most traditional sports. In golf, in fact, you count in centuries.

To me the only unquestionably dominant athlete, across generations, is not even a person. It’s a horse – Secretariat who won the American Triple Crown of Racing in 1973. As a Filipino, though, I’d make the case for Efren Manalang Reyes. Already universally acknowledged by players, fans and sports writers as the best ever, Bata’s hold on GOAT status in Pool is far firmer than Jordan’s is turning out to be.

Be like Mike? Be Like Harry! In constitutional litigation, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque is making his own case as G.O.A.T. He has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged critics of the Anti-Terror law to go to Court – just like Harry. “When I was at my prime, my peak, in challenging acts of other administrations, at least I went to court and got the judgments that I wanted. So, we should focus on actually revisiting how to actually go about constitutional litigation if we feel that there are really unconstitutional provisions in the law.” Ehem.

The Supreme Court, a.k.a. Harry’s home court, is the Anti-Terror Law’s next stop. Congress hasn’t exactly been a quality assurance mill. But given the bill’s certification as urgent, a real debate in either chamber was an illusion. It’s a shame as we could have benefitted from legislative scrutiny. If not from the conscientious nitpicking of the individual lawmakers, at least we could always depend on bicameralism. For some reason, however, the Congressional leadership settled on debating identical bills.

As it is, they spawned this controversial output that provides the Supreme Court with another litmus test for the bill of rights. Terrorism is a scourge. It requires strong medicine. It is our legislators’ duty to ensure that in arming the executive to fight it, the prescription given doesn’t boomerang and inflict more damage. The cure should not be worse than the disease.

The next frontier for this hot potato will be Padre Faura where we test the competence, integrity, probity and independence of our Justices. Harry the Great might even descend from his pedestal. The last time an Anti-Terror law reached the Court, he led the charge against it. And that earlier version was more benign.

Much ado. ABS-CBN’s Gabby Lopez was seen jumping through hoops on his citizenship non-issue. Why is this even happening in Alan Peter’s House? The Speaker has known this same adversity when his citizenship was challenged. Like he said, “it’s different when you were born with those citizenships. You’re allowed to use that.”

Testing watch. 42,000 capacity. Good. Less than 10,000 tests daily. Bad.