President Marcos announced Friday that he will amend Executive Order No. 138 to clarify the functions, services, and facilities to be devolved to local governments.
Speaking at the Local Governance Summit in Pasay City, Mr. Marcos said he aims to ensure equitable devolution, dividing responsibilities and funding between national and local governments based on the Supreme Court’s landmark “Mandanas Ruling.”
“This year, we also target to issue the order amending E.O. No. 138, with clearer parameters on the functions, services and facilities that are to be devolved,” the President said.
The SC’s ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia petition determined that LGUs’ 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,” Mr. Marcos added.
The chief executive expressed confidence that clearer guidelines will enhance the ability of local governments to implement Sustainable Development Goals within their jurisdictions.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Marcos to amend policy on devolution of services to LGUs.”
