Lacson wants higher budget allocation for barangays

Former senator Panfilo Lacson is urging the national government to augment the budget of barangays nationwide to improve the delivery of services.

In a forum over the weekend in Quezon City, he discussed how a barangay earns only an average of P1 million yearly, compared to municipalities and provinces, which usually earn P100 million.

“The basic requirement for a barangay to give a decent level of service is at least P12 million. We’re talking about farmto-market roads, bridges, multi-purpose halls, basketball courts, etc. Where will barangays get the P11 million to complete their projects?” Lacson said.

He noted that an equitable distribution of wealth is the key to improve and speed up services because at present, “resources are too concentrated on the central government.”

Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police, bared that on the national level, there are “a lot of resources that are just parked in different departments.”

“Let’s talk about the special purpose funds. These are just discretionary funds for Malacañang. If you bring these resources down to the local level, the local development councils can identify which infrastructure and livelihood projects the funds can be allocated to,” he pointed out.

He noted that augmenting the budget of barangays, the simplest and smallest form of government, would also develop a sense of ownership and responsibility among local officials.

“After so many years of getting involved in budget deliberations in the Senate, I thought of imparting to barangay leaders the importance of knowing the budget, how much is the budget for this year, next year and the succeeding years,” he added.

He said that although there is a government program that involves communities in identifying projects that their local government will implement, more is needed.

“I tried to enlighten them that even though there’s the Grassroots Participatory Budget Process, it’s not enough,” he stressed.