Talisay peace and order council approved

CEBU, Philippines – The Talisay City Council approved on third and final reading an ordinance that will institutionalize peace and order council, which aims to address ambiguities existing between the Talisay City Peace and Order Council and the Talisay City Police Coordinating and Advisory Council of the Office of the Vice Mayor.

Joint committee report No. 2014-108 was authored by Councilor Socrates Fernandez, who is the chairman of the Committee on Laws and Good Government, and Edward Alesna, who is the chairman of the Committee on Public Order.

"There are no legal impediments of the ordinance," the report read.

Fernandez said as per DILG Memorandum Circular 2008-114, the City or Municipal Peace and Order Council shall be composed of the city or municipal counterparts of the department, offices and agencies to be appointed by their respective agency heads with the City or Municipal Mayor as chairman and the respective Vice-Mayor as vice-chairman.

City Councilor Danilo Caballero, who is the council's proponent of the ordinance, said the existing city peace and order council has not been founded and supplemented by any city ordinance but adopts some provisions of the ordinance on the creation of the Talisay City PCAC.

The Police Advisory Council was first introduced on November 17, 1975. Then president Ferdinand Marcos issued Executive Order No. 727, series of 1981, creating the Peace and Order Council as replacement of PCAC.

According to Caballero, the passage of the ordinance also aims to broaden the participation of people's organizations and civil society for better program implementation.

The peace and order council is composed by the mayor as honorary chairman with committee chair on peace and order as co-chairman.

Members of the council include the president of the Association of Barangay Councils, city police chief, city jail warden, city fire marshal, traffic head, city social welfare officer, information officer, city legal officer, city administrator, city budget officer, city school division superintendent and DILG officer who will act as secretary.

Among the major tasks of the council are to provide a forum for dialogue and deliberate major issues and problems that will affect peace and order, including insurgency and terrorism; recommend measures which will improve or enhance peace and order and public safety; recommend measures to converge and orchestrate internal security operations efforts of civil authorities and agencies, military and police.