House Deputy Speaker and Batangas 6th district Rep. Ralph Recto (Facebook)

The individual barangays' Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of almost P175 billion each should be a big reason for Filipinos to vote wisely during the Oct. 30 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.

House Deputy Speaker and Batangas 6th district Rep. Ralph Recto bared in a statement Wednesday, Aug. 23, that the country’s 41,953 barangays will each receive an IRA of P174.27 billion in 2024.

“There are 175 billion reasons as to why the electorate should choose their village leaders well,” he said.

Also under the law, the SK is entitled to 10 percent of barangay funds, “so that will be P17 billion nationwide a year that will be apportioned among them", noted Recto.

He said the IRA, now booked as National Tax Allotment in general appropriations documents, represents the 40 percent share of local governments from "national internal revenue taxes" collected three years before.

That 40 percent is further divided among LGUs, with 23 percent going to provinces, 34 percent to municipalities, 23 percent to cities, and 20 percent to barangays.

Recto said the barangays’ IRA for 2024 is bigger than the proposed P105.6 billion budget of 114 state universities and colleges.

“It is six times bigger than the P28 billion earmarked in the proposed DOH budget for medicine and vaccines. Mas mataas din sa budget ng lahat ng DOH-run hospitals (It is also bigger than the budget of all DOh-run hospitals).” he said.

“Huwag po nating ismolin ang barangay kasi frontline government agency na mahalaga ang katungkulan na ginagampanan (Let's not belittle the barangay since it's a frontline government agency that has an important role)," stressed Recto.