TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Cordillera lawmakers are now awaiting the unified stand of the present administration’s economic managers on the funds that will be provided by the national government to the proposed Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) that will be contained in House Bill HB) 3267 that seeks to establish the CAR before it will be submitted for plenary debates.
Rep. Allen Jesse C. Mangaoang, Baguio city Rep. Mark Go and Mountain Province Rep. Maximo Dalog, Jr. already made the initial representations of the cordillera congressman to several House leaders and the administration’s economic managers on the estimated funds that will be provided by the national government to the proposed autonomous regional government that will sustain its operation once created.
He disclosed that the finance department has already the figures on how much the national government will be providing the regional government in terms of share from the annual budget but the position of the budget department is being awaited on the matter so that there will be a unified stand once the figures will be presented to the members of the House committee on appropriations and subjected to plenary debates in the House.
Congressman Mangaoang narrated that the national government is providing the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) approximately 5 percent of the annual budget of the national government that come in terms of share from the fund allocations and the block grant which is less than P100 billion.
On the other hand, he explained that the initial proposal was for the national government to provide the proposed CAR with 2.5 percent of the annual budget which is roughly computed to be around P37 billion and the block grant of P10 billion for the first five years which amounts to more or less P47 billion annually for the first five years of the region’s existence.
The Kalinga lawmaker argued that Cordillera lawmakers are willing to compromise with the administration’s economic managers on the acceptable percentage of the share of the autonomous region from the annual budget, provided that, the P10 billion block grant annually for the first five years and P5 billion annually for the succeeding five years will be maintained as the same will be used to develop most parts of the Cordillera that remain to be underdeveloped.
“We continue to do our part in lobbying with our fellow lawmakers from other parts of the country so that the proposed autonomy law will be immediately acted upon on the committee level and in plenary. We also need the support of concerned stakeholders and autonomy advocates to continue the aggressive upstream lobby so that the law will be in place the soonest possible time, especially that there is now the snowballing clamor for self-governance among Cordillerans,” Congressman Mangaoang stressed.
Earlier, the House committees on local government and ways and means approved the proposed autonomy law while the matter is still pending with the House committee on appropriations awaiting the unified stand of the economic managers on the funds that will be provided by the national government to the regional government once it will be created.
Aside from Congressmen Mangaoang, Go and Dalog, the other cordillera lawmakers who are authors of the autonomy bill are Abra Rep. Menche Bernos, Apayao Rep. Eleanor Bulut-Begtang, Benguet Rep. Eric yap and Ifugao Rep. Solomon Chungalao.
