BACOLOD City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez has issued Executive Order (EO) No. 54 creating the Integrated City Enforcement Team (Icet).
Benitez, who signed the EO on Tuesday, November 22, said the Office of the City Mayor and all its departments or offices have continuously enforced and implemented the city ordinances through task force and enforcement team.
He said each task force and enforcement team charged with the enforcement and implementation of the city’s ordinances belong to separate departments within the ambit of the Office of the City Mayor.
He added the various departments exercising control over their own separate task force or enforcement team results in a convoluted and inefficient implementation of the numerous ordinances of the city which is compounded by the lack of coordination with other departments for an effective enforcement.
“There is a need to consolidate the various task force and enforcement team under a single organization with the input of the various departments for a proper, efficient, effective and immediate enforcement and implementation of the city’s ordinances,” the mayor stressed.
Benitez noted that the various task force enforcing various ordinances of the city shall be incorporated in the Icet under a unified command structure in order to effectively and efficiently enforce the various ordinances.
The Icet will be composed by the City Legal Office (CLO) and Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) director as the chairman and co-chairman, respectively.
They shall be responsible for the planning, supervision and execution of the tasks and functions of the enforcement team.
Benitez said the Icet will conduct inspections together with the various city departments upon report of an ordinance violation or acting on a complaint filed by any party affected by a violation of an ordinance.
He said they will seize any contraband as may be mandated by a city ordinance and cause for its destruction after duly complying with all legal procedures as provided by an appropriate law, ordinance, rules or regulations.
Section 5 of the EO stated that the enforcement team shall be directly accountable to the chairman.
The enforcement team shall coordinate with various supporting agencies in the enforcement of ordinances that require technical skills and knowledge; and each enforcement team shall prepare a monthly report of activities conducted by the unit in their respective areas to be submitted to the team leader in the third week of the month, the EO further stated.
The mayor also tasked all officials and city employees of Bacolod including barangay officials, employees and tanods to assist the enforcement team, if requested.*