ON the ascription that the Province of Cebu through the governor has overreached its authority to mandate an island-wide isolation policy amidst the existential threat posed by coronavirus spread, here’s my position on the matter.
The island of Cebu is geographically a contiguous whole. A policy that has something to do with public health and welfare of the islanders must be crafted concertedly to be effective and profound.
True, the island has highly urbanized cities that are politically independent from the province. But this division is more fiscal and political rather than cultural or territorial. In fact, every Cebuanos can freely move around from one city or town to another without being challenged of his or her domicilary.
Under this backdrop, the Province of Cebu thru Executive Order 5, organized and created the NCOV-19 Provincial Executive Committee on Feb. 3, 2020 with membership of the mayors of Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City, among others. This setup is viewed by some quarters and political science pundits as a kind of an overreach.
The Local Government Code in Sec. 3(f) encourages this framework of consolidation or coordination of the efforts for the participating LGUs’ common benefit. The key objective here is coordination of the strategies and responses of local government units concerned in order to contain the contagion of this deadly virus. This statutory mechanism of clustering would not in any way diminish the independence of these member cities.
On the issue as to whether or not the governor through the recommendation of said executive committee can validly mandate a province-wide regulation prescribing for a temporary travel ban and protocol on quarantine, among others, my answer is in the affirmative. Notwithstanding the enactment of enabling provincial ordinance which expressly authorizes the governor to prescribe measures at preventing the outbreak in the province, the General Welfare Clause enshrined in Sec. 16 of the Local Government Code has granted to the Province through the governor, powers which are necessary, appropriate, or incidental for the effective and efficient governance as well as those powers which are essential to the promotion of the general welfare of its inhabitants.
This general welfare clause as a legal construct traces its roots in common law and had been around since the inception of the idea of municipal corporations. It is a manifestation of police power exercised by local government units as delegate.
The police power of a municipal corporation like the provincial government, must be responsive, in the interest of the common welfare, to the changing conditions and developing needs of growing communities, and is not confined within the narrow circumscription of precedents resting on past conditions. That which may at one time be regarded as not within such power may, at another time like what transpired at the moment amidst this global pandemic, by reason of changed conditions, be recognized as a legitimate exercise for that power.
In the event of doubt, Courts liberally construe the general welfare clause so as to give more power to local governments like the province in promoting social welfare of the people in the community. (By Prof. Benjamin A. Cabrido Jr., USJ-R Law)