BAGUIO CITY – The chairman of the City Council Committee on Laws, and Human rights is pushing for the immediate codification of all ordinances and resolutions, including barangay ordinances and resolutions, to serve as an available reference to the residents and visitors alike, especially those conducting researches on existing legislations for specific issues and concerns.
Councilor Faustino A. Olowan, chairman of the said committee, pointed out that there are numerous outdated ordinances and resolutions of the local legislative body that must be updated to conform with the fast changing times and the prevailing situation in the city to effectively and efficiently address the prevailing problems of the city.
“We should make sure that our existing legislations conform with the prevailing trend of the times. We admit that we have numerous outdated ordinances and resolutions that is why one of the primary task of the incoming local legislators is to ensure that existing ordinance and resolution will conform with the existing situation in our city,” Councilor Olowan stressed.
He also proposed that the codified city and barangay ordinances and resolutions will be posted not only in conspicuous places in the city hall and barangay halls for the information of the people on what are the prevailing rules and regulations in the barangays and the city as a whole for them to be guided accordingly.
While it is true that the current batch of local legislators is currently working on the codification of the city’s general ordinances, Olowan admitted that the same might be overtaken by events, thus, it will be prioritized during the next batch of city councilors who will be comprising the local legislative body after the end of term of the current members of the city council.
According to him, residents and visitors must be made fully aware of existing city and barangay ordinances that were crafted for the purpose of ensuring orderliness in the city, thus, the need for the implementation of the long overdue codification of ordinances and resolutions that will include those that were crafted by the different barangay councils so that there will be the appropriate reference on what are the prevailing rules and regulations in the city.
The local legislator asserted the need for the local government to invest and put in place the codified version of ordinances and resolutions so that people will be fully aware of the rules and regulations that are being implemented in the city so that it will not be an excuse that people are not aware of the prevailing ordinances that is why they violate the same.
He also suggested that the codified ordinances will also be provided to the different public and private educational institutions in the city to help in inculcating to their students the existing ordinances and resolutions that have to be strictly observed by the people when in the city.
He urged the public to actively participate in the future endeavors of the local legislative body to codify prevailing local ordinances and resolutions so that they will be able to help in suggesting what other important legislations have to be enacted to improve the implementation of programs, projects and activities of the local government, especially in ensuring orderliness among the people.
By Dexter A. See
