BAGUIO CITY – During the Roundtable Forum Regarding Updates on House Bill 3267 or An Act Establishing the Cordillera Autonomous Region held at The Plaza Lodge Baguio last Thursday, April 4, 2024, one of the central points of discussion was the contents of the joint position paper issued by The Department of Budget and Management (DBM), along with Department of Finance (DOF), and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). The paper, being a response to the fiscal provisions contained in the proposed Cordillera Autonomy Bill.
Invited to the panel to deliberate on the key points of the position paper were Social Preparation of CAR into an Autonomous Region (SPCAR) Team Leader of NEDA CAR Yuri Weygan, Chief Budget and Management Specialist of DBM CAR Mayna Caymo in place of DBM CAR Director Irene Gahid, and Executive Director of H-Camp Consultancy Maxine Tanya Hamada. Each giving their own take on how to move forward with the proposed revisions on the bill, specifically on the aspect of fiscal autonomy.
According to Weygan, it is unlikely for the autonomy bill to be passed before the 2025 Senate Election and the 19th Congress, especially without it being signed by the President as urgent. He then draws comparison to the prior presentation given by the Vice Chair of the Committee on Appropriations and Finance in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Engr. Baintan Ampatuan, wherein she explains the fiscal provisions and the financial allocations of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
Weygan points out that while the BOL specified that their annual block grant will be coming from the 5% of the net collections of Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BOC), House Bill 3267 merely states a proposed block grant of 2.5% coming from the national tax, in addition to the continued financial support of the National Government to the Regional Line Agencies of Cordillera. The earlier stated being one of the flaws pointed out by the position paper of DOF, DBM, and NEDA.
Caymo, on the other hand, defends the fiscal provisions of the bill, being one of the proponents of such provisions. She elaborates that the purpose of the block grant coming from the gross national tax and not the net, on top of the continued funding of the Regional Line Agencies and LGUs by the National Government, is to accelerate the development of the region.
“…We recognize, and we accept that we are far, or we have been left behind by other regions which became progressive in previous years. So those were our reasons why we put all those fiscal provisions and as part of the TWG at the regional office. We deem it necessary or essential for us to have those finances to really accelerate. Otherwise, we will be just at par with the other regular administrative regions.”, Caymo explains
Caymo then gives a brief summary of the position paper, stating that the National Government in its current form will be unable to fund the provisions stated in the bill, emphasizing the effects of the COVID pandemic to the national fiscal space. The paper then recommends that the proposed bill be reconsidered by year 2029, in hopes of the National Government being in a better position to provide the region’s needs by then.
In addition, the position paper recommends that provisions on the bill that are considered double funding should be taken out and that the Regional Line Agencies should no longer be dependent on the National Government, as well as the proposed transition period of 10 years and corresponding financial support of the National Government be shortened. All of which to minimize the fiscal implications and allot budget for other national level priority projects.
Hamada challenges the double funding provisions of the bill and deems it counterintuitive to the objectives of the Cordillera to be a model for regional autonomy. “How can we be a model… when our filed bill has three budget processes happening at the same time? You have the National Government budget process, you have the Local Government budget process, and then we’re introducing a Regional Government budget process. This is not a model for autonomous government.” Hamada says.
“Part of their position paper told us that you have 26 billion in allocations, whether through line agencies, GOCCs, grants, et cetera to the region, and you are asking, they are telling us, for an 8.8 billion separate block grant? So imagine, you are fighting for 8.8… but you are not looking at the 26 billion.”, she adds.
She then suggests that if the region wants the compelling political narrative for passing the autonomy bill to be that of becoming a model for regional autonomy, then the region must show through the suggestions of the Pulse Asia Survey commissioned by NEDA of capable leaders, good governance, informed citizens that hold the government accountable, and even levels of progress throughout the region, its capacity to manage the 26 billion national budget for the Cordillera that goes down through the Regional Line Agencies better than how it is currently being managed by the National Government.
She explains that maybe then can the fiscal provisions of the bill be considered as an investment and not a deficit by the government, and the bill may be approved.
Congressman Marquez ‘Mark’ Go, the Representative of the Lone District of Baguio, attends the meeting via online to deliver news regarding the state of the autonomy bill, and states that he is undergoing negotiation with the new Secretary of Finance, Ralph Recto, the Committee on Appropriation, along with the DOF, DBM, and NEDA to reconsider their stance on the bill, in reference to the issued position paper. He expresses his optimism that once the bill is approved by the Department of Finance, the bill may be passed before the 2025 Senate Elections and the 19th Congress. By Jimmig M. Malingan