SENATOR Panfilo Lacson on Friday revealed that if he wins the presidential race, his centerpiece program of government will be the Budget Reform Advocacy for Village Empowerment or BRAVE.

BRAVE will ensure that funds from the national government will cascade down to remote villages.

This will allow barangays in sixth-class municipalities to have funds for their development.

Under BRAVE, barangays can expect P3 million to P5 million a year, towns and cities P100 million, and provinces P1 billion from the national budget.

“Ito ang aking prime advocacy na ipagpatuloy na ibaba at pakinabangan ang national budget sa kahit 5th or 6th class municipalities, dahil laging nakabara ang budget sa itaas,” the Partido Reporma standard bearer said.

He noted that the BRAVE program dovetails with the Mandanas ruling of the Supreme Court which mandates that local government units should receive 40 percent of all national taxes, giving more funds to local governments to spend for their projects.

“Kapag na-pool natin ang mga resources na ganito, magagampanan natin ang tungkulin at proyekto natin kung alam nating may parating na pondo, at maramdaman ng tao ang progreso,” the senator said.

He lamented funding bottlenecks due to corruption and what he termed jurisdictional convergence, where the national government takes over projects that will cross over adjacent provinces.

Lacson noted that the World Bank estimated that up to 20 percent of the Philippines’ annual budget was lost to corruption.