EB Magalona Mayor Alfonso Gamboa yesterday said he is disappointed in the answer of House Speaker Jose de Venecia on the call of the Municipal Mayors League of Negros Occidental for congressional action on the insufficient and inequitable allocation of funds to Local Government Units

When the matter was raised with the speaker at a dialog with local officials at the provincial Capitol in Bacolod City Monday afternoon, Gamboa said that de Venecia's answer was "All the more reason for you to support Charter change because the next step after a unicameral parliamentary form of government is federalism."

Gamboa said he was disappointed because the matter can be addressed simply by amending the law and not a change in the Constitution.

It is the task of the members of Congress, who represent the people, to address this injustice, he said.

Section 521 of R.A. 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991 provides a mandatory review of the Code every five years, he said.

It specifically states that "Congress shall undertake a mandatory review of this Code at least once every five years and as often as it may deem necessary, with the primary objective of providing a more responsive and accountable local government structure", Gamboa said.

He said the Municipal Mayor's League of Negros Occidental has been asking for the following amendments to the provisions of Book II of RA 7160:

*Section 284 - The 40 percent share of the Local Government Units in the collection of Internal Revenue Taxes of the National Government be based on collection of the previous year so as to cope with the increasing demands for the delivery of basic services;

*Section 285 - Amend the percentage allocation of Internal Revenue to Local Government Units so as to lessen the inequalities between LGUs. Although cities got only 23 percent share as compared to the 34 percent share of the municipalities, only 117 cities share the pie unlike for municipalities' share which is divided among 1,501 municipalities;

*Section 151 - Municipalities be also given equal taxing powers to that of the cities;

*Section 233 - Increase real property tax rate imposed by the province as that of the city;

*Section 271 and 272 - Amend the distribution of the proceeds of real property tax giving more share to the municipality because it bears the burden of collection and have the component cities give share to the provincial government out of its proceeds from basic real property tax and to the provincial school board from the additional one percent Special Education Fund Tax;

*Section 150 - A city/municipality where a business is conducted or transaction is made be given the power to tax the same/impose business tax even though no branch or sales outlet is located therein; and

*Section 325 - Provision on PS limitation as well as LBC No. 75 should be thoroughly be reviewed on the effect to small municipalities. The application to a first to third class province and city is not applicable to a first to third class municipality especially with meager income to which PS limitation is dependent as a percentage of the total actual income realized by LGUs for the next preceding fiscal year.*CPG

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