President Ferdinand ”Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Friday said his administration is eyeing an executive order that will define the services of local government units that are to be devolved this year.
”This year, we also target to issue the [order] amending Executive Order No. 138, s. 2021, with clearer parameters on the functions, services, and facilities that are to be devolved,” Marcos said during the Local Governance Summit 2024.
”We have been working on this for a good long while and I think we have found a formula wherein we divide the funding according to the way that we determine services belong to — as a responsibility to the national government, other services belong to the local government,” he added.
Through this move, Marcos said, ”we are able to satisfy the needs as best as we can for both the national government and most importantly for the local government as the Mandanas ruling really directs itself towards the improvement in the local government situation.”
In December of last year, Marcos tasked the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to come up with a list of the basic functions and services of the local government units based on the devolution transition plans.
The Philippine government has been reviewing Executive Order No. 138, which aims to provide guidelines on the full devolution of certain functions of the executive branch to LGUs.
Signed by former President Rodrigo Duterte, the EO was released to implement the July 2018 Supreme Court ruling widening the base of the LGUs’ share in taxes or the so-called “Mandanas Ruling.”
Meanwhile, Marcos also said he recently signed Executive Order No. 68, which strengthens the Lupong Tagapamayapa Incentives Awards System and reorganizes the National Awards Committee.
”Under the new EO, the number of award categories increased from four to ten, which includes the Hall of Fame and Peace Champion awards,” he said.
—VAL, GMA Integrated News
