BAGUIO CITY – The City Council formally adopted the principle of participatory legislation as part of the Body’s lawmaking procedures through Ordinance No. 36 series of 2018 approved on final reading last March 5.
Authored by Vice Mayor Edison Bilog and all councilors, the measure sets the guidelines governing the conduct of participatory legislation or the crafting of laws with the involvement of the affected constituents and stakeholders in the City.
As decreed, the Body will employ different participation strategies during public participation depending on the nature of the proposal subject to the following guidelines:
*The Sangguniang Panlungsod or the committee where a subject matter is referred to, determines the proposal to be subjected to public participation, prepares the necessary project proposal and requests the Secretary to the Sanggunian to send out the necessary invitations and requests;
*The Office of the City Secretary shall inform all members and all stakeholders of impending public participation through various methods such as letters, text messages and posting at SP webpage at least one week before the conduct of public participation;
*The venue of participation shall be determined depending upon the number of participants and availability of venue. When possible, public participation shall be conducted at the Session Hall, Multi-purpose Hall of City Hall, Barangay Hall or any other government or privately owned establishments which could accommodate the participants. The concerns of senior citizens and Persons with special needs shall be considered in setting the venue of public participation;
*The Office of the City Secretary facilitates the public participation processes and shall remain neutral in all public participation activities. The same office may use different participation strategies depending on the subject matter;
*Inputs during public participation shall be collated by the Office of City Secretary and concerned committee where the proposal is referred to. Proposals having similar subject matters and/or stakeholders may be lumped into one public participation;
*Stakeholders shall be informed of the collated inputs whether the proposed measure was approved or not, through letters, posting and through the Information Officer of the SP; and
*The committee in charge of the subject matter of public participation shall consider the collated suggestions during the public participation in the preparation of its committee report on second reading before publication.
The ordinance also mandates the City Secretary to continuously conduct surveys during public participation activities to assess their effectiveness and to gather the preferences of the constituents on public participation. All collated data shall be submitted to the SP members for possible updating or improvement of this ordinance.
By: Aileen P. Refuerzo
