At stake in barangay polls: P59-B revenue

MANILA, Philippines - Aside from being the big man in the community, a barangay official handles the village’s share of the P59,165,520,377 in Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) this year.

A total of 42,028 barangay chiefs nationwide will be voted into office this October.

The IRA for the 1,706 barangays in Metro Manila alone amount to P5,239,414,157, according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Sam Garcia of the Department of the Interior and Local Government-National Barangay Operations Office said the IRA will not be equally divided among barangays, since their share would depend on the earnings of the local governments.

"The bigger the population, the bigger the IRA share for the barangay," Garcia explained.

On top of the IRA, barangay chairs have also shares from all the taxes collected by their local government units, including real property and business taxes.

For instance, Barangay 176 in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City could get as much as P100 million in IRA for this year, according to Carlito Peralta, a kagawad (barangay councilman). Peralta is set to run for barangay chairman this October.

Garcia said a barangay chairman in Metro Manila receives about P23,000 in monthly honorarium, and has the final say where to put their barangay budget.

Barangay chairmen in the National Capital Region (NCR) are in the bracket of salary grade 14.

Barangay councilors or kagawads receive over P17,000 each in honorarium monthly or a salary grade 10.

In 2010, Peralta said he received an average P12,000 monthly allowance as kagawad.

The same year, about P51 billion in IRA was allotted for the barangays, or an increase of P88 billion in three years.

There are times when the money they receive would increase, according to Peralta, pointing to his barangay as the biggest in the country.

It was different, however, for Danny Apat, a kagawad of Barangay 584 in Sta. Mesa, Manila.

Apat said he gets P7,000 honorarium while the barangay captain receives P8,000 monthly, excluding other benefits and the fact that she managed the barangay funds.

Peralta explained allowances for barangay officials in Manila could be smaller than Caloocan City because of the city’s dense population.

“There’s a barangay in every corner so their allocation is very small,” he said.

The Local Government Code defines the IRA as the share of local governments from the national taxes.

Under the law, 60 percent of taxes go to the national government and 40 percent is allocated to local governments as IRA.

Barangays get 20 percent of the IRA, while provinces and cities receive 23 percent each, and municipalities 34 percent.

DBM records showed Southern Tagalog has the highest IRA share with P7,055,673,879, Cordillera Administrative Region has P1,304,980,224; Ilocos has P3,736,548,979; Cagayan has P2,596,851,832; Central Luzon has P5,579,537,485; Mimaropa has P1,893,828,427; Bicol has P4,104,778,116; Western Visayas has P5,075,729,489.

Central Visayas has P4,325,211,,492; Eastern Visayas has P4,188,613,861; Western Mindanao has P3,415,402,904; Northern Mindanao has P2,786,707,409; Southern Mindanao has P2,299,811,022; ARMM has P3,880,679,897 and Caraga has P1,679,751,204.