Committee to monitor approved ordinances

CEBU, Philippines - An ad hoc oversight committee has been created to monitor the status of approved Cebu City ordinances within the 12th and 13th Sangguniang Panglungsod after the City xx Council noted that there are a number of legislations which have not been implemented.

The committee will be headed by Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and vice chaired by Councilor Alvin Dizon while Councilors Hanz Abella, Sisinio Andales, Eugenio Gabuya Jr. Margarita Osmeña and Mary Ann Delos Santos will be members. The SP Secretariat was also tasked to make an inventory of approved ordinances within the said period.

The committee, along with representatives from the executive department, is expected to meet every three months or when the need arises.

 “It is of utmost importance that we have mechanisms to regularly monitor the status of laws. These mechanisms are many and varied,” said Dizon in a privilege speech yesterday.  

“We, legislators, must be regularly apprised of developments that affect the implementation of laws, to ensure that they remain responsive to the needs of the people they are intended to serve,” he added.

In Congress, for instance, they create oversight committees “to determine whether laws and programs addressing subjects within their jurisdictions are being implemented and carried out in accordance with the intent of Congress and whether they should be continued, curtailed, or eliminated,” Dizon said.

Dizon added that the council has been “prolific” and “highly productive” in passing ordinances and resolutions to cope with the demands and needs of the constituents especially the marginalized sectors, but a number of these measures have remained unimple-mented.

He cited City Ordinance 2259 or the “Ordinance Restructuring the Loans and Extending the Terms of Payment to a Maximum Period of Ten Years of the Beneficiaries of the Slum Improvement and Resettlement Program.”

The ordinance is supposed to provide security of land tenure to almost 2,000 SIR urban poor beneficiaries through a restructuring program and the extension in the terms of payment, was enacted in 2010 but until now remains unimplemented.

Another example, Dizon disclosed, is City Ordinance 2348 or the Site Development Fund which had an allocation of P50 million but only P8 million was used but was still beyond the utilization scope of the Socialized Housing Program.

Councilor Andales said that for the ad hoc committee to be retained, it must be incorporated in the council’s house rules.

“We have seen the importance of the committee and it is better to integrate it with our house rules because it might die down,” he said.

However, the council decided not to amend the house rules yet and instead would be integrated in the council’s rules and regulations in July next year. — (FREEMAN)