Rama bats for digitalizing ordinances

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City acting mayor Michael Rama said digitalizing all ordinances of the local government units and uploading to the Internet will not only improve transparency, but will encourage the people to be more conscious.

Rama, the national president of the Vice Mayor’s League of the Philippines, is hoping that the E-Legis or the electronics legislation project initiated by the VMLP would be realized.

He is also hopeful that it will be continued by the next batch of officials. The term of the organization’s present officials will end on June 30 next year.

In Cebu City, consultant Belinda Navasquez said they are expecting that the uploading to the web of all City Council ordinances approved since 1992 will be completed before the yearend or early next year.

Once these ordinances will be uploaded to the Internet, it would be easy for the public to track them down.   

 The project is planned to be implemented throughout the country that is why the VMLP is busy conducting seminar workshops with the representatives of different legislative units.

Since March 14, 2009, the VMLP has already conducted 16 seminar workshops, including the one that winds up today at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.

Rama believed that because the public can just surf the web to know the local laws, it would be easy for them to help the media in exposing illegal activities of public officials and employees.

“E-Legis promotes transparency, accessibility and may also add up in observance of discipline and compliance of the law,” Rama said.

The Ayala Foundation assisted the VMLP on the project. Aside from the VMLP and Ayala Foundation, the League of Vice Governors of the Philippines, Technology Business Incubator and InfoDev of the World Bank, United Nations Children Economic Fund also supported the project.

The electronics legislation will speed up the gathering of documents, improved the sharing of information among the legislative bodies in the country and will encourage participatory governance among the people.

Former Cebu City councilor Franklin Seno, who actively helped for the realization of the project, said local legislators should stop using terminologies in crafting ordinances.

He cited some terminologies used by some legislators in their ordinances like the word “habal-habal” that refers to motorcycles-for-hire, and the word “lechon manok,” which he said is not appropriate.

Seno said the word “lechon” refers to a young pig, but most people refer “lechon” to a roasted pig or even chicken. He said the correct term for a roasted pig is “lechon de asado,” but the word “lechon” could not be used for a roasted chicken. — Rene U. Borromeo/LPM   (FREEMAN NEWS)