President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday announced he will amend Executive Order 138 to clarify the functions, services, and facilities to be devolved to local governments.
Speaking at the Local Governance Summit in Pasay City, the President said the government aims to ensure equitable devolution, dividing responsibilities and funding between national and local governments based on the Mandanas ruling.
“This year, we also target to issue the order amending Executive Order No. 138, s. 2021, with clearer parameters on the functions, services, and facilities that are to be devolved,” Mr. Marcos said.
The court’s ruling in Mandanas vs. Garcia determined that local government units’ (LGU) share of national taxes encompasses not only the internal revenue taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue but also those collected by the Bureau of Customs.
This broadened tax base enhances the computation of LGUs’ shares and strengthens fiscal decentralization.
“We have been working on this for a good long while and I think we have found a formula wherein we divide the funding according to the way that we determine services belong to… as a responsibility to the national government, other services belong to the local government,” Marcos said.
He expressed confidence that clearer guidelines will enhance local governments’ ability to implement Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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