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The
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is urging
local chief executives in the province to maximize the utilization
of their internal revenue allotments (IRA) to achieve the
Philippines' Millennium Development Goals on top of which
is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.
This
was the call issued by NEDA Development Information Director
Benjamin Turiano during the agency's progress report in coordination
with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)
held at the Bohol Beach Club yesterday.
NEDA
considers Bohol as one of the most dynamic provinces in terms
of pursuing its poverty alleviation programs having graduated
from among the top 20 poorest provinces to number 50 out of
80 provinces in the country.
While
Turiano admits that local government units (LGUs) have budgetary
constraints, he stressed that local officials should allocate
a large part of their resources towards social services and
the attainment of the 8-point goals of the country particularly
poverty reduction, minimizing child mortality, access to primary
education, promoting gender equality and empowerment of women,
improve maternal health, access to reproductive health services,
reverse the incidence of diseases and ensure environmental
sustainability.
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As
LGUs are heavily dependent on IRA for their budgetary
requirements, local officials should be more creative
in sourcing out funds like efficient collection of taxes,
revenues from devolved services and grants from international
donor organizations, Turiano pointed out.
He
said billions of funds are wasted in building infrastructures
which have minimal impact to the public such as waiting
sheds and basketball courts that are largely used for
political ends. These funds should have been used for
the implementation of development targets at the local
level.
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Turiano
cited the examples set by LGUs which aggressively prioritized
the 8-point goals.
The
NEDA official exemplified Bohol that would meet the targets.
They forecast that by the year 2010, the province would reduce
the incidence of poverty by almost half of the current 42%
to as low as 20% to 22%.
In
the national level, NEDA aims most of the provinces would
have achieved the millennium development goals by 2015.
Asked
to comment on the pursuit of local executives for the decentralization
of internal revenue sharing in order to give LGUs discretionary
powers on their revenues, Turiano said that he is "all
in favor" of decentralization but there are some local
officials who do not go in line with the development goals,
hence, would only worsen the situation.
According
to Turiano, the overall probability of attaining the targets
is high, though depends largely on the harmony of efforts
in all target areas and synchronization of limited available
resources down to the local level.
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