The News Today Online

Parliamentary-federal gov't to hasten economic growth of cities

By Maricar M. Calubiran

For the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) the parliamentary-federal form of government is favorable to the various city governments as it would hasten their economic growth.

Mayor Jerry Treñas, president of the LCP, said the allocation of financial resources in a federal system is of crucial importance to the development of each city.

With the parliamentary-federal form of government, Treñas said, the city's income would redound to the benefit of the city concerned.

Relatedly, the province of Negros Occidental also favors the parliamentary-federal form of government. This was learned recently from Commissioner Rolando Adamat.

In the proposed amendment of the 1987 Constitution, the Philippines will be called as Federal Republic of the Philippines consist of Federation and New Manila and eleven constituent states and their local governments.

Each state is an autonomous regional movement of the Federal Republic. The territory of the different state is determined by the combination of geographic contiguity of their component areas, their ethnic, linguistic and other cultural aspects of their socio-economic potential and viability.

In the parliamentary-federal government, there will be democratization of powers and resources to the states and their local governments. It will provide the state much freedom to solve prevailing socio-economic concerns.

In the federal set-up, there are more opportunities for consultations with local communities as proponents of investments or development plans shall deal directly with state and local officials.

The debt of the national government shall remain with the national government or in this case, the federal government. There is also a need for the federal government to formulate a sharing mechanism to gather resources to support the servicing of the national debt with a greatly reduced tax and revenue base.

The proposed taxes to be allocated to the States are individual income tax, corporate income tax, Value Added Tax, franchise tax, tax on banks and non-bank financial intermediaries, tax on finance companies, tax on gross receipts of life insurance companies, documentary stamp tax, motor vehicle registration fees, private motor vehicle tax, travel tax and charges on forest products.