Rep. George Arnaiz (Oriental Negros, 2nd District) said he will make the amendment of Republic Act 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991, as one of his legislative priorities.

Having served the local government for the past 18 years Arnaiz said, "My first love is local governance and local government."

Before his election as representative, Arnaiz had served for three consecutive terms as provincial governor. He had also served as member of the provincial board and as vice governor.

He said he will push for an amendment of the Code and push for an increase in the share of the local governments in the Internal Revenue Allotment.

Arnaiz said he will propose the granting of authority to vice governors and vice mayors in the country to appoint their own staff, especially job order personnel. Right now, he said it is not clear in the Code, whether the vice governors or vice mayors are empowered to do that.

Another issue concerning the local governments that Arnaiz said he would like to deal with is the share of the locality of the proceeds from protected areas, such as the Apo Island.

He said, the locality is now entitled to the 75 percent of the proceeds that has to be remitted first to the national treasury, and released only to the locality on request which takes a very long time.

Arnaiz said he will also work for an amendment of the Code that prescribes the sharing of the royalty from the proceeds in the utilization of geothermal energy.

In the case of the geothermal-rich town of Valencia, which is receiving about P50 million royalty from Philippine National Oil Company every year, he said, it has a big amount of surplus, despite the P600 subsidy the municipality is giving to each households with electrical connection, in the town.

Under RA 7160, 80 percent of the share of a local government unit of the royalty, should be spent solely for lowering the cost of electricity in its locality.

"Local governments should have a free hand in how to use money," Arnaiz said.*RA

back to top