FORTY PERCENT OF P1.2 BILLION

City Gov’t To Demand P480-M Share
From Sale of Iloilo Airport

By ALEX P. VIDAL

The city government of Iloilo City stands to earn some P480,000,000, 40 percent of the P1.2 billion paid by the Megaworld Development Corporation to the national government for the sale of the 54-hectare old Iloilo Airport in Mandurriao district.
This became apparent after two administration city councilors have drafted a resolution “expressing the sense and consensus” of the city council requesting Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that “Iloilo City be given its rightful share of the 40 percent from the proceeds of the sale of the old Iloilo airport to the Megaworld Development Corporation in the amount of P1.2 billion.”
The proponent councilors Eduardo Peñare-dondo and Jeffrey Ganzon have cited Section 289 of the Local Government Code which provides that “local government units shall have an equitable share in the proceeds derived from the utilization and development of the national wealth within their respective areas, including sharing the same with the inhabitants by way of direct benefits.”

Gross Collection Share

They also invoked Section 290 of the same law which provides that “Local government units shall, in addition to the internal revenue allotment, have a share of 40 percent of the gross collection derived by the national government from the preceding fiscal year from mining taxes, royalties, forestry and fishery charges, and such other taxes, fees, or charges, including related surcharges, interests, or fines, and from its share in any co-production, joint venture or production sharing agreement in the utilization and development of the national wealth within their territorial jurisdiction.”
The draft resolution pointed out that the basis of the law is Section 7, Article X of the 1987 Constitution based on a resolution of 1986 Constitutional Commissioner Blas Ople.
It added that “Section 7, Article X of the 1987 Constitution provides that “Local governments shall be entitled to an equitable share in the proceeds of the utilization and development of the national wealth within their respective areas, in the manner provided by law, including sharing the same with the inhabitants by way of direct benefits.”
The draft resolution emphasized that the term national wealth “is not limited to natural resources only but to all kinds of wealth that the country owns including lands of the public domain.”
It explained that “the 40 percent just and equitable share of Iloilo City is appropriate at the time when Iloilo is engaged in accelerated development in response to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address to develop the Visayas as the Tourism upper Region.”

Construction

The draft resolution underscored that for the city to attain its objective to be a premier city by the year 2015, it will construct the following:
1. The New Iloilo City Hall
2. Construction of the Boulevard along the Iloilo River as per the Regional Development Council (RDC) Resolution No. 42 series of 2007.
3. The proposed City Public College
The proponents said, Section 293 of the Local Government Code provides that the share of local government units from the utilization and development of national wealth “shall be remitted in accordance with Section 286 of the code.”
They explained that “Section 286 (a) of the Local Government Code provides that the share of each local government unit shall be released, without need of any further action, directly to the provincial, city, municipal or barangay treasurer, as the case may be, on quarterly basis within five days after the end of each quarter, and which shall not be subject to any lien or holdback that may be imposed by the National Government for whatever purpose.”
The proponents and Vice Mayor Patrick Jed Mabilog will be asked to represent the city council “and request for the favorable endorsement of this resolution by Hon. Salvacion Zaldivar Perez, chairperson of the Regional Development Council.”
Meanwhile, lawyer Leopoldo “Pol” Causing said the city government has a strong chance of getting the nod of the national government saying “the draft resolution has a strong and solid basis in law.”
Causing stressed that under the same law, Antique province was able to get a share of mining taxes due the province worth millions of pesos from the Semirara Mining Corporation in Caluya Island.
“Thus Antique has accelerated from fourth class to second class province because of the share it got from the mining firm,” Causing, a federalism advocate, pointed out. /MP