Oreta backs immediate IRA releases to LGUs

To strengthen local autonomy, Sen. Teresa Aquino Oreta has pledged to work for the speedy passage of a law that would ensure the automatic appropriation of the Internal Revenue Allotments (IRAs) of local government units even as she urged local officials to tap more avenues to raise funds for their anti-poverty programs.

Speaking before a gathering in Manila of the country’s vice mayors, Oreta pointed out that the release of the IRA should not be at the mercy of whoever is the Malacañang tenant, which is the reason why she has filed a Senate bill that will guarantee the automatic release of these funds and a 10 percent annual increase in the cost of devolved functions of LGUs.

Senate Bill No. 875, according to Oreta, will ensure greater local autonomy because the release of the IRA would be insulated from Malacañang politics.

"If Senate Bill 875 becomes a law, the release of, and fund increases under, the IRA will be automatic. Local executives do not need to look like beggars each year, trying to get a slice of the IRA that should have been given to them in the first place," Oreta told the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines (VMLP) during their national convention held this week at the Century Park Hotel.

Oreta pointed out that aside from the IRAs, local government units, as provided for under the Local Government Code, could also contract loans and float bonds to raise money for their projects.

She said the move by the Monetary Board to make LGU bonds attractive by reducing their investment risks from 100 percent to just 50 percent should encourage local executives to tap this revenue source to raise more funds for anti-poverty projects in the countryside.