New SP division to streamline legislation

CEBU, Philippines - After 10 years of being an idle division under the Sangguniang Panglungsod (SP), the Legislative Research, Monitoring and Tracking Division (LRMTD) is finally on the move with the appointment of a division chief.

Roy Vincent Alix, who used to work as SP executive assistant for the office of Councilor Arsenio Pacaña, was appointed the division chief of the LRMTD last March 1.

Alix said that the division was created a decade ago but was ignored for lack of personnel to man the division.

The division’s main task is to keep track of the status of all ordinances to determine whether these were already approved or still pending before committees, and to check on their implementation.

The division will also check on duplication, as well as establish an organized database of legislative actions.

According to Alix, they need to train all executive assistants, especially the new ones, on the correct format of a resolution and an ordinance, including the supporting documents.

He revealed that there were instances when the council approved two similar ordinances drafted by different authors.

“We would like to avoid these things. Before they file a resolution, they have to look into the records to avoid redundancy. We have already created a database, we call it our E-library. All you have to do is go to our office and you can access the records easily,” he said.

Alix said that one of their priorities is to trace the approved ordinances to see if these have been implemented.

“Daghan na man gud tang mga ordinance na na-approve pero kasagaran wala pa na-implement. Once we have the data of these unimplemented ordinances, we will ask the office in-charge nganung wala pa na-implement, kung kinahanglan ba’g amendment or unsay angay buhaton,” he said.

He said that the Cebu City Council approves a lot of ordinances every year but many of these are not implemented right away.

“Maybe we should also revisit our house rules. Wala man gud consultation before they pass a draft of the ordinance. What the councilors do is draft the ordinance and directly submit it to the SP secretary for a public hearing, ang resulta, half-baked ordinances,” Alix said. — THE FREEMAN