|
WE are taking the side of the League of Cities of the
Philippines in opposing the bill to grant automatic city status to
all provincial capitals. We also sympathize with the LCP for
wishing that last year’s conversion of 16 towns into cities had
not happened.
House Bill 24, authored by
Zamboanga Sibugay Rep. Ann Hofer, would amend Republic Act 9009 (the
Local Government Code). The bill seeks to exempt the capital
towns of provinces from the income requirement for would-be cities.
Under the Local Government Code,
a town must have a locally generated income of at least P100 million
annually to qualify for cityhood. The town must also have a
land area of at least 100 square kilometers or, lacking that, a
population of at least 150,000.
Hofer explains that the income
requirement unduly restricts the economic, political and
socio-cultural development of provinces that have no cities.
Cities indeed, because of their large incomes and population, become
a magnet for business and economic investments—like
malls and factories. They also attract national politicians and
largesse from a friendly Malacańang Palace.
The trouble is that a poor town
or capital turned into a neo-city, whatever the reason for its
poverty, won’t ever attract serious outside investors or promoters
of advocacies (except communists and politicians campaigning for
votes).
Calling a goat a horse won’t
make it one.
Internal Revenue Allotment
The Local Government Code gives
all local government units —provinces, cities, towns and even
barangays—a share from national government tax collections.
The share is called the Internal Revenue Allotment. The
national government has allotted P210 billion for the cities’ IRA
this year.
There were 136 Philippine cities
as of the third quarter of 2007. LCP counts only 120 as its members.
Last year, 16 towns were raised to city status.
The LCP has petitioned the
Supreme Court to stop the Department of Budget and Management
from releasing money to the 16 new cities from the P210-billion
fund.
Instead of only 120 cities
dividing the P210 billion among themselves, 136 cities will now
share it. And if the Hofer bill becomes law, 161 cities will
end up sharing it. Therefore, the 120 cities of the LCP will
be receiving much less than they used to get.
There is even a wickedly perverse
side to this. Some towns will earn less from their share of
the IRA as a city than its IRA as a town. The LCP, in a
presentation to the press last week, showed that if Sorsogon City
had remained a town it would have gotten an IRA increase of P41.9
million in 2008, an increase of 15 percent. But as a city it is now
only getting an P8 million increase. Similar decline in share
from the IRA has happened to many cities because the Palace has
reduced their share. As more towns become cities, each
city’s share of the IRA is further reduced.
Imprudence and untruthfulness
The Hofer bill, by promoting
unqualified municipalities to cities, would boost the unwholesome
vice of imprudence that prevails in much of Philippine officialdom
and governance. For town officials are certainly imprudent
when they lose tens of millions in their share of their IRAs just to
see themselves as mayors, vice-mayors and councilors of overnight
cities—not mere towns.
The proposed law would promote a
capital town to a city by removing the basic income requirement of
P100 million. That amount is the minimum a local government
unit must have to be able to afford some of the amenities enjoyed by
a real city. Not making that much income, a town must accept
its limitations. It must not pretend to be what it is not.
Otherwise, the officials of that town would be morally untruthful.
Human beings by nature tend
toward the truth—except those who have become so bent out of
shape, like many of our politicians. People who do not honor
the truth, who love duplicity, dissimulation and hypocrisy trample
on their own and their fellowmen’s dignity.
This bill strengthens the
atmosphere of untruthfulness in our country. It would add to
the people’s distrust for government institutions and officials.
It would increase the number of lies that we Filipinos are forced to
swallow. People of a poor town suddenly called a city will know that
the new designation is a lie.
It will only deepen the public
distrust for government that opinion surveys regularly reveal. As
part of its preparation for the ongoing World Economic Forum annual
meeting in Davos, the WEF commissioned a survey of 60 countries
including ours. The survey affirmed something Filipinos have
always known—and must contribute to reverse: That most of us think
our government officials are dishonest.
Promoting unqualified provincial
capitals to the rank of cities without deserving it, will only add
to the cynicism of our people.
It is bad enough that we have a
proliferation of universities—shady institutions that do not even
have the qualifications colleges in Europe and America must have.
These universities have contributed to the severe decline of the
quality of our graduates.
Elevating undeserving towns as
cities by law will worsen the degradation of Philippine governance.
|
