Local officials want Senate abolished this year

Mayors, governors and other government officials want the Senate abolished and a unicameral parliamentary form of government set up this year.

"The Senate is using (local governments) as pawns in a political gambit to promote its political agenda," said Binalonan, Pangasinan Mayor Ramon Guico, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP).

"Some senators should be ashamed of themselves We cannot allow an abusive Senate to continue harming our local constituencies.

"We can no longer afford this wasteful exercise, spending more than P700 million in taxpayers’ money to approve just one bill. The Senate’s conduct is disgraceful and leads us only to one conclusion, that it is time to shift the country to a parliamentary government and a one-house legislature," Guico said.

At an executive committee meeting in Quezon City, the LMP drew up a timetable "before the year is over" for the abolition of the bicameral Congress through a constitutional amendment shifting to a parliamentary government with a unicameral legislature.

The LMP said the re-enacted budget means a loss of opportunities for growth, raising prospects of local job layoffs, lost income and the breakdown of adequate delivery of basic services to its constituents.

"This is the fourth time that the Senate has held hostage the LGUs by failing to act on the budget, thereby denying us of our just shares from the national wealth," Guico said.

"We have suffered long enough, and whatever it takes, we will push for Cha-cha."

The mayors have vowed to stop the Senate’s alleged abuse by mobilizing their resources to ensure approval of the proposed amendments to the Constitution in a national referendum, he added.

The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), which groups the LMP and local government associations, has campaigned for Charter amendments through a people’s initiative for which the coalition Sigaw ng Bayan has already gathered more than nine million signatures of registered voters.

Guico said the Senate’s alleged mangling of the budget has effectively denied local governments some P64 billion in additional resources, including the P15 billion increase of their internal revenue allotment (IRA) shares.

An automatic appropriation formula provided for in the Local Government Code places the combined IRA shares of provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays at P166 billion this year.

The reenacted budget pegs the shares at P151 billion.

The Senate also dropped the proposed P5 billion Kilos Asenso Fund and the P3 billion Barangay Kalayaan Fund.

Guico said fourth- to sixth-class municipalities that have depended heavily on their IRA shares would suffer greatly from the budget cuts.

"They will be forced now to cut their expenditures for agricultural support program in favor of keeping funds for health and social services," he said.

Guico said the 1.7 million local officials, angered by the Senate’s action, have decided to campaign against senators who will seek office in future elections.

"The two-house Congress is like a carriage with a horse at each end, each pulling in opposite directions," he said. "This is impeding the nation’s progress and promoting the continued suffering of the Filipino people."

On the other hand, Angono, Rizal Mayor Gerry Calderon, LMP secretary-general, said it is unfair for local governments and their constituencies to suffer from the alleged inadequacies of the senators.

"Our development plans and budgeting are now distorted and the implementation of major projects halted," he said.

Calderon asked Charter reform critics to rise above partisan politics and fight for the welfare of the people, not personal interests. — With Mike Frialde