In crafting implementing rules: DOJ opinion ‘useful’ input

CEBU, Philippines — The provincial government of Cebu will “consider” the legal opinion of the Department of Justice as input in crafting the implementing rules and regulation of the controversial provincial ordinance that requires national government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) to consult and seek prior approval from the province before implementing its programs and projects.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said the legal opinion issued by Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla pointed out “some very useful items,” such as local government unit’s prerogative to file charges against defiant officials before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Garcia clarified that the implementation of Provincial Ordinance No. 2023-02 has been deferred until they shall have come up with the implementing rules and regulations. She said the Capitol is currently in the consultation stage with the national agencies and GOCCs to come up with the IRR.

“But as I stated in that assembly of all the national government agencies and GOCCs, as chief executive, I shall defer implementing this ordinance until we shall have come up with a doable, understandable, sensible, logical implementing rules and regulations," said Garcia.

In a six-page legal opinion dated April 24, Remulla called out the Cebu Provincial Government for the alleged mistake in requiring prior consultation and approval for programs and projects to be implemented by the national agencies and GOCCs.

Using Capitol’s conflict with the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) as premise in his legal opinion, Remulla said “Cebu is wrong”.

The justice secretary said BAI does not need prior approval from the Capitol to implement its policy in handling African Swine Fever (ASF) in the province.

Wrong premise

Rory Jon Sepulveda, Capitol’s legal consultant, said the opinion was based on a wrong premise. Sepulveda said the ordinance was passed not because of the perceived conflict between the provincial government and BAI officials. In fact, the ordinance was crafted prior to the said conflict.

Ordinance 2023-02 was a result of the provincial government of Cebu’s efforts to enable the prior consultation mechanism found in the Local Government Code,” Sepulveda said.

his legal opinion, Remulla said the “power of local government units to legislate and enact ordinances and resolutions is merely delegated power coming from Congress and these should not contravene an existing statute enacted by Congress.”

Sepulveda agreed and acknowledged that the Province of Cebu is part of the unitary government of the country.

“We are not an autonomous government we are not independent from the national government. We will just exercise power expressly delegated upon us by the Local Government Code pursuant to the constitutional mandate of local autonomy,” Sepulveda said.

Moot

Capitol officials also considered the legal opinion as “moot” believing that it was issued prior to Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. and Special Assistant to the President Secretary Anton Lagdameo's visit to Garcia on April 25.

During their visit at the Capitol, the officials expressed their support for the said ordinance.

Had there been prior communication directly to the provincial government they would have been able to “fully explain the ordinance,” Garcia said.

She added that they could have explained how they intended to proceed with the implementation of the ordinance and that there would have been no need for legal opinion and that misconception could have been avoided.

“There was some agreement that perhaps there are some policies that need to be revisited, the immediate culling of pigs and, on the other hand, when I said this is not about the BAI entirely but we had already started studying on how to see to it actions of the national government and the local government may be synchronized and synergized to avoid wastage of government funds and to avoid further burden when projects were left unfinished as was the case of the United Nations Avenue and the case of Oslob national road,” Garcia said.

She said there were some national government projects and programs in the towns and cities that left local officials explaining and answering complaints from the public.

The governor said that when she called a meeting with the regional directors of different national agencies and GOCCs last April, the regional heads have agreed that there should be coordination between LGUs and the national line agencies.

Some regional officials even complained of the lack of ‘mechanism” for the consultation which the Capitol is trying to address through the ordinance.

Even some government agencies complained that their problem is some LGUs are ignoring and not coordinating with them as they implement their projects.

“I hope that with this ordinance we will come to realize there is no need to claim turfs, not my turf, your turf, it should be our turf working together in clearly defined mechanisms because after all we are all Filipinos, we are working for this country, that this country would be able to progress,” Garcia sad. — (FREEMAN)