THE 19th Davao City Council surpassed performance of the previous Council in terms of passed resolutions and ordinances, a City Council official bared.
City Council secretary Charito Santos said the current Council, during its first six months, passed 905 resolutions and 163 ordinances.
Santos said the current batch of city legislators exceeded the 466 resolutions and 131 ordinances passed by the 18th City Council from July to December 2016.
He said most of the passed ordinances involved financial assistance to neighboring areas affected by calamities, memorandum of agreements (MOAs) entered by the city government, sisterhood agreement, and reclassification on certain properties as relocation sites for informal settlers.
Councilor Melchor Quitain topped the list with the highest number of ordinances with 39.
Quitain, the committee head on rules, privileges, laws and ordinances, had been reviewing outdated ordinances and previous MOAs.
Trailing behind were Danilo Dayanghirang (31), Jesus Joseph Zozobrado (24), Conrado Baluran (11), and Nilo Abellera (10).
Jaffar Marohomsalic has the most number of resolutions passed with 178. Most of it was related to his committee on youth and sports, and the Sangguniang Kabataan affairs.
Marohomsalic is followed by Edgar Ibuyan Sr. (158), Edgar Ibuyan Jr. (129), Dayanghirang (88), and Quitain (85).
Santos said there were also councilors who were not able to pass a single ordinance including Mabel Sunga Acosta, Pamela Librado-Morata, Diosdado Mahipus Jr., Jonard Dayap, Wilberto Al-ag, Ibuyan Sr., Antoinette Principe-Castrodes, and Marohomsalic.
Librado-Morata, meanwhile, is the sole councilor with no resolution sponsored.
Although the City Council secretary said the ordinances of these councilors were not passed before the first semester of the Council as it is still under the committee hearing, or were not immediately filed for third and final reading.
She added some ordinances that were previously filed in the previous council, which were passed in the current council, are not counted.
Attendance
The first six months, according to Santos, has conducted 26 sessions: 24 are regular, two are special.
Out of the 27 councilors, only three had the perfect attendance. These are Quitain, Alberto Ungab (current acting city vice mayor), and Pilar Braga.
She said no single councilor had a zero attendance.
But she said had Acosta has least number of attendance with six.
Santos said Acosta’s absences are on official business leave, wherein she had attended conferences and events related to her committee, the committee on peace and public safety.
Acosta is followed by Librado-Morata and Ibuyan Sr. (18) with the least number of council attendance.
Overall performance
In a scale of one to 10, Santos gave the current council a nine-rating.
“We base it in the performance as a collegial body, which is the number of ordinances and resolutions they passed. Nauungusan nila ‘yung 18th City Council (they outshined the 18th City Council),” she said.
She added the 19th Council is “fast” in passing legislative measures.
Santos said those who had passed a number of ordinances and resolution are the veterans or those who had previously served the Council.
She also said it’s understandable that neophyte councilors have the least number of legislative measures passed since they are still learning the ropes of their jobs.
The SP official also rated Vice Mayor Sebastian Duterte as a well-performing presiding official, despite being a newbie politician.
She called the vice mayor as “accommodating”, adding that he is approachable whenever there are matters in the local council that are urgently to be addressed.
“Makita nimo (You can see), before he assumed, you can see the willingness to serve and learn. Humingi talaga siya ng (He even seek to borrow the copy of the) internal rules in the Council, and the journal of the session and the minutes,” Santos said.
Duterte, during the opening of the 19th Council, said the Council in his administration will push to enact 24 landmark ordinances to pursue the priority agenda of both local and national government.