To enforce the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision about the fair share of local governments in national taxes, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. directed his development committee to examine former President Rodrigo Duterte’s devolution order thoroughly.
According to Department of Budget and Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman on Tuesday, Marcos gave the order during a sectoral meeting on 21 March in Malacañang where the President presided over a sectoral meeting with a focus on Executive Order 138, which calls for the full devolution of some national government activities to local government units and the establishment of a committee on devolution, among other things.
Pangandaman said several officials discussed the roadmap for the transition to full devolution of power from the national government to LGUs during their discussion, adding that the administration had reexamined EO 138 in response to several LGU concerns, particularly concerning the implementation of expensive and significant projects.
“With our meeting this morning, we were tasked again by the President to sit and study the projects and programs that the national government would implement given its capacity to handle the projects and what are the projects that would be devolved to the local government units,” Pangandaman said.
The DBM chief added that they could finish the study on the full devolution of some executive branch tasks to LGUs in two months, stressing that academic institutions like the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and even the government’s development partners have already conducted many studies regarding the devolution.
“Maybe we can just look at them again, maybe in just two months we will already have the study and we can show this to the President already,” Pangandaman said. “We can also present if there is a need for us to amend EO 138.”
National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan would serve as the committee’s chair that will further study the full devolution, according to Pangandaman.
