CALBAYOG CITY -- Just as people here continue to ask who was behind the killing of Mayor Reynaldo Uy two months ago, so they are still wondering how it is that the city treasury effectively owes PhP 56 million (USD 1.3 million) to the national government after failing to remit tax revenues from 2007 to 2010.

But it seems discrepancies in remitting claimed taxes appear to date back even further.

The collection scandal has reportedly been an open secret among many of the 1,000 plus employees of the local government unit here who maintain deductions payable and due to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the likes of the Pag-Ibig Fund were neither properly collected nor passed on.

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Lorena Laniton, 45, and Emmanuel Tondocan, 30, rice farmers from Barangay Gayola, a farming village here, are still reeling from the loss they incurred from the massive rat infestation that hit the city and nearby towns in North Cotabato since November last year.

They found themselves in a position of having to pay off huge debts from rice traders they considered ‘loan sharks’ for imposing high interests on loans, ranging from 7-15 per cent.

Instead of harvesting 45 bags of rice in a hectare this season, Laniton only reaped six which she sold only for PhP 5,000 (USD 116) after “a huge army” of rats attacked her farm land. Tondocan meanwhile harvested only three bags from a hectare for only PhP 2,800 (USD 65).

MARAWI CITY -- It is 7 a.m. and a dozen heavily armed members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) man a checkpoint that marks the boundary between Balindong and Ganassi municipalities.

“We are always on red alert here especially after the ambush and killing of a mayor,” says the young Maranao police officer assigned at the police headquarters in Langcap, Marawi. “We need to elect new leaders, we need to have change,” he adds.

While he has been assiduous with all his senior appointments, President Benigno Aquino III was especially careful when it came to the person who would head up the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

It is after all the DILG which has to channel his transparency agenda from the national to the local level and down to the grassroots. Aquino essentially led the department himself for several weeks before designating former Naga City mayor Jesse Robredo as its chief.

The DILG has the Local Government Units (LGUs) as its main clientele. The LGUs are subdivided into 81 provinces, 136 cities, 1,495 municipalities and 42,008 barangays as of December 31, 2008.