Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Reflections for the Lenten season.


The Lenten season marks a forty day period. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Good Friday for Protestants while Catholics end the season on the Thursday before Easter.

Lent is the season of fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence, conversion, and simplicity. Lent, which comes from the Teutonic (Germanic) word for springtime, can be viewed as a spiritual spring cleaning: a time for taking spiritual inventory and then cleaning out those things which hinder our corporate and personal relationships with Jesus Christ and our service to him.

eHow.com has come up with a few suggestions that Christians like us can do to observe the lenten season. Just click this link.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Signed on Friday the 13th, to take effect April fool's . .


The heading is borrowed from my co-employee, Edge. It refers to the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2009 or RA 9524. It was signed by the President on April 13th, Friday and by operation of the law, takes effect on April 1st.

The DBM has already issued National Budget Circular No. 519, prescribing the guidelines on the releases of funds appropriated in the new GAA. As usual, this would entail first, the preparation of Agency Budget Matrix (ABM) disaggregating the agency appropriations into "This Release", "Not Needing Clearance" "Needing Clearance", etc. Upon receipt of the approved ABM, the agency concerned will have to prepare their respective Cash Program.

The Buzz for LGUs

Here are some of the latest development affecting LGUs:

- The Supreme Court has recently affirmed its earlier decision declaring as unconstitutional the conversion of 16 municipalities into cities. This would mean that this unfortunate 16 will revert as municipalities, giving up their IRA shares as cities. For the existing cities, this is a long awaited welcome news as they stand to reap a windfall in terms of IRA adjustment. For the municipalities, this SC final decision is a sad reality for they will be giving up part of their IRA shares in favor of the 16 which will soon be back in the fold.

- The DBM is set to release the financial assistance (FA) to LGUs whose IRA shares last year suffered a reduction due to he adoption of the 2007 Census of Population. Said FA shall be charged against the Kilos Asenso Support Fund. A total of Php 1.4 B has been set aside for the purpose corresponding to two (2) months share. Per DBM's policy guidelines, LGUs with computed share of less than Php 100T will receive the amount without need of further request. Those with Php 100 T or more will have to accomplish a prescribed form (KA Form No. 1) which will then be submitted to DBM as basis for the release. For Region VI, provinces, cities and municipalities will received a total of Php 113.248 M.