BAAGUIO CITY – A local legislator wants that the local government will infuse additional funds to the barangays to help speed up the development of the smallest political subdivision of the bureaucracy which will sustain the robust growth of the city.
Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr., chairman of the Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture, underscored that a good number of high impact development projects in the barangays have always been left out over the past several years because of the limited funds being allotted by the local government considering that funding for the priority projects of the barangays are left out to the city’s 20 percent local development fund.
Under the provisions of the Local Government code or republic Act (RA) 7160, local governments, especially cities, are mandated to allocate 45 percent of their annual budgets for personal services while 55 percent are left out for maintenance and other operating expenses, capital outlay, 20 percent development fund, 5 percent local dissert risk reduction and management fund among other mandatory appropriations.
“We have to empower our barangays by providing the smallest political subdivisions with the needed funds to ensure their growth and development that will contribute in efforts to sustain the robust growth of the city without compromising the state of our environment,” Councilor Yangot stressed.
The alderman underscored that by prioritizing the needs of the barangays, there will be a balanced spread of development in the city’s 18 barangays so that congestions in the central business district could be significantly reduced to the convenience of the motoring and commuting public.
According to him, the local government has to stretch its available funds to provide all the city’s barangays with their priority projects but it is always the case that there are some projects that are being left out because of the availability of limited funds for the said purpose.
Councilor Yangot, who was a 4-term punong barangay, a 2-term president of the association of Barangay Councils (ABCs) and twice elected as the number one local legislator, pointed out that it is important for the barangays to come out with high impact development projects and not just piece mill projects so that there will be balanced development in the countryside that will contribute in efforts to uplift the status of the city.
Baguio City place host to 128 barangays with a population of more than 367, inhabitants which increases to more than 50,000 people during the day because of the influx of students and transient individuals waning to study, work and do business in the city.
He claimed that barangays have always been clamouring for bigger development funds from the local government because the barangay officials rely on their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) to support the honoraria of the people manning the barangays and the services being delivered to their constituents that will translate to increased economic activities that will translate to better income-generating activities for more funds that could compensate the provision of their salaries.
By Dexter A. See
