Guico: IRA must be an election issue

By: James Porter | Posted: 08th February 2010

The League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) National President, Ramon Guico, Jr., and other local executives want candidates for congress in the forthcoming May 2010 elections to pledge the revision of the Local Government Code to provide an increase of internal revenue shares of cities and municipalities.
Guico dared the local leaders of the country's municipalities to ask congress candidates to make the IRA an election issue. According to Guico, an increase in national government assistance to local government units (LGU) has been long overdue.
"Candidates running for Congress, whether as congressman or as senator, should have a stand with regards to the LMP proposal for a 50-50 sharing of taxes collected by the national government," Guico said.
The LMP National President, who is currently on his third and last term as mayor of Binalonan, Pangasinan, stated that the IRA being distributed by the national government is not enough to eradicate poverty and develop the agricultural projects that local leaders are made to accomplish.
In a news forum on December 2009, Guico said that the LMP believes that "an increase in national tax share would boost efforts of the national government to reach the poorest of poor in the urban and rural areas of the country. Therefore, LGU's need additional financial backing in pursuing this objective."
Guico, who was recruited to join the Lakas-Kampi senatorial slate, admitted that this objective is one of the main reasons why he decided to join the race in 2010. For more information visit to our site at http://www.ramonguico.com
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Tags: rural areas, national government, government assistance