Thursday, November 03, 2005
Editorials: Emasculated city council
Except for a few, members of the current Cebu City Council are brilliant and have excelled in their fields of concern.
It is therefore unfortunate that since they assumed their post last year, what they can show are minor ordinances and resolutions, with but a sprinkling of important ones.
A proposed ordinance requiring taxicabs to have radios with AM frequency?
Surely, there are bigger things that should occupy the mind of Councilor Edgardo Labella, a respected lawyer with a good stint at the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
The problem, though, is not Labella’s or the other councilor’s lack of creativity but the Council setup that has left the members making do with crumbs for legislation.
For one, there is the reality of a Council that does not have a credible opposition after the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) swept the 2004 polls.
Creativity usually heightens and best ideas are produced when minds clash---something easily discernible in philosophy and the legal profession.
Then there is the fact that the mayor is himself the head of BO-PK, forcing councilors not to say anything or propose important ordinances that may clash with what the party head wants.
Secondly, there is the Council’s “unique” relationship with the executive department, which is actually a trap that institutionalized the councilors’ subservience to the mayor.
At first glance, giving councilors executive functions, like supervising police work, garbage disposal, etc. sounds logical, as it gives legislators a chance to observe closely important aspects of governance to be able to come up with better legislation.
The setup, however, have made councilors function more like senior department heads under the mayor, effectively scuttling legislative initiative and independence.
Meanwhile, the failure to balance assigned executive tasks with the main function of legislation has produced councilors who are more of executives than legislators.
Of course, there is nothing much that the councilors or the Cebuanos can do for now except to expect the Council to plod on until the next elections, when the chance to change the setup will present itself.
Effect of RVAT
Here goes government functionaries again, claiming that the implementation of the Reformed Value Added Tax (RVAT) starting last Nov. 1 has not affected much the prices of basic commodities.
But the people are not that easy to fool; they know that effects of additional tax impositions are not immediate but rather are slow and sure---like an incurable disease.
(November 3, 2005 issue)
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