BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan admitted the failure of the city council to pass key legislations will definitely affect the competitiveness ranking of the city in both the regional and national levels.
The local chief executive underscored some of the key legislations such as the city’s environment code is now on second reading after publication while the city’s comprehensive land use plan and zoning ordinance is also lined up for amendments, thus, the need for the local legislative body to already pass the said pending ordinances before the said proposals will be subject to refilling next month.
He added another important legislation pending before the city council is the general revision of the schedule of market values for real property tax and the proposed amendments to the city’s tax ordinance which had been branded by the Bureau of Local government Finance (BLGF) as antiquated.
“There is no perfect law that is why we urge the members of the city council to pass the pending key legislations to help u-lift the competitiveness level of our city in the future. Concerned agencies have time and again reminded the city on the need to update its tax ordinance and other important legislations but it seems nothing has been done to comply with such requirements,” Domogan stressed.
It can be recalled that Baguio City ranked 13th among 144 cities in the latest competitiveness rankings released by the National Competitiveness Commission after placing 15th in the initial staging of the competitiveness ranking among local government units in the country.
The city’s environment code, comprehensive land use plan and zoning ordinance and the general revision of schedule of market values and updating of the city’s tax ordinance are pending deliberations before the city council but if the local legislative body fails to pass the proposed legislative measures, then the proposals must be refilled once the new set of local officials assume their respective positions by noon of June 30, 2016.
It was learned that the proposed environment code of the city has been pending since 2003 while the schedule of market values of real property has not been amended since 1996 and the city’s tax ordinance has not also been updated since 2001.
Under the provisions of the Local Government Code of 1991, schedule of market values for real property must be done every five years while business taxes of local governments must be updated every three years.
Domogan cited that if legislators are trying to make the proposals perfect, then the pending legislations will not be passed because it is difficulty to find ways and means on how to come out with an ideal ordinance that might not be effective once passed in the future, thus, the need for the members of the council to consider working out the minor differences in the proposals before such legislations will be again refilled by the next set of city councilors that will contribute to an added delay.
By Dexter A. See
