Around a thousand Cebu PB ordinances codified

CEBU, Philippines - Around a thousand ordinances passed by the Provincial Board from 1984 to 2012 have been codified in the pursuit of Cebu Province to have a guide on what ordinances have been passed, implemented or amended so far.

The FREEMAN columnist Atty. Aven Piramide and his daughter Atty. Charisse Piramide were the ones responsible for the drafting of six codes for the Province of Cebu.

These codes are namely Code of Procedures of the Provincial Board of the Province of Cebu, with 29 ordinances; Code of Administration of the Province of Cebu, with 79 ordinances; Code of Public Order, Peace and Safety of the Province of Cebu, with 21 ordinances; Code of Cooperative, Economic Enterprise and Investment of the Province of Cebu, with 22 ordinances; Code of Environment and Natural Resources, with 34 ordinances; and Code of Health and Sanitation, with nine ordinances.

The “Simplified Manual on Codification: A Guidebook on Harmonization of Local Laws” of the Department of Interior and Local Government defines “codification” as a joint effort of the executive and legislative branches of the Local Government Unit in the systematic process of collecting, inventorying and classifying legislation by subject of law or practice, revising, supplementing and consolidating provisions to efficiently and effectively inform the public through an enactment of its end product —a code.

When they won the bidding on who will codify the ordinances of the Cebu Province, Aven said that they were given the go signal last December 2011 and he is proud to announce that they were able to finish the codification last month, a month and a half ahead of the scheduled submission date.

“We were advised to make four to five codes as our target for the eight months duration given to us but we exceeded as it reached to six and we were able to finish them a month and a half before August,” he said.

Piramide, who teaches codification in the College of Law of the University of the Visayas, said that DILG has 19 recognized topics for the ordinances and that any city, town or province can fill in any of the 19 topics.

Charisse said that they conducted three processes before they came up with the six codes. They first collated all the laws, read them and then classified them according to subjects.

Aven said that the codification is very beneficial to the province as it makes it easier for PB members to find out on what laws or ordinances have to be updated, repealed or amended. The public will also know the existing laws and businessmen will also be aware of the laws they need for their respective businesses.

The Cebu Province was not Aven’s first client when it comes to codification; he also codified the laws of Bayawan City in Negros Oriental in 2003, Toledo City in 2004 and Baybay City in Leyte in 2006.

Aven recalled that during a Vice Mayors League of the Philippines meeting about codification, the Bayawan City vice mayor at the time said they already have it and it was done by him.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, who was still vice mayor then, showed interest since Aven was his teacher in his law studies in UV before he transferred to San Beda College.

But during the bidding, Aven declined inclusion since he was not in good terms with Rep. Tommy Osmeña, who was mayor at the time. The one who won the bid only made a legislative tracking and not codification.

DILG advises local officials to codify ordinances previously passed by their Provincial Boards and see what ordinances will help them govern better.

In their website, DILG Regional Director Evelyn Trompeta said a common practice among local legislators is just to pass and pass ordinances that overlap or remain not implemented because they do not have any idea of previous ordinances passed. She added that this codification activity brings together various agencies to help the LGUs with specific areas for legislation and that the code will help the LGUs formulate sound and responsive ordinances. — (FREEMAN)