CAGAYAN de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno said the expansion of the Local School Board (LSB) is legal contrary to the Commission on Audit's (COA) pronouncements that it is unlawful.
The COA, in a statement, said there is “nowhere in the provision or anywhere else in the law can we find any authority or power of the local chief executive to create, expand, or add new members of the LSB other than what is enumerate therein.”
But Moreno said over his radio program, the context of expanding the LSB membership from 8 to 21 is for people's participation and transparency in governance saying expanding the board to improve it is not prohibited by law.
“Wa lang siguro masabti sa COA and I welcome this as an opportunity to explain the legality of expanding the LSB. Wala may prohibition sa pag expand sa composition sa LSB,” Moreno said, adding that it is elementary in law that what is not prohibited is allowed.
The COA cited Section 98 of the Republic Act 7160 which, states that the city school board shall be composed of the city mayor, the city superintendent of schools as co-chairmen, the chairman of the education committee of the City Council, city treasurer, duly-elected president of the city federation of parents-teachers associations, elected representative of teachers' organizations in the city, and a representative of the non-academic personnel of public schools in the city.
But the present LSB added members of civil society organizations like the Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc, Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc., a representative from the interfaith sector, and one from the youth sector.
The COA said expanding the membership of the city school board and paying their honorarium may be disallowed.
Moreno, however, explained that the expanded school board is patterned after Naga City’s, authored by the late Jesse Robredo, Naga’s former mayor and the Secretary of the Department of Interior Local Government under the past administration.
He said Robredo's version, which has been cited in the Galing Pook Award, is rights-based and highlights the protection and fulfillment of the rights of the child to survival, protection, development, and participation.
The said model, Moreno said, is adopted not only in Cagayan de Oro, but in other local government units nationwide.
Moreno lashed at his critics in the local opposition, particularly the minority members of the City Council who brought up the issue on Monday.
“They do not want City Hall to build more classrooms and make quality education accessible to the people of Cagayan de Oro,” Moreno said.
At present, the City Government has built 447 classrooms and bared plans to build 800 more.
Moreno downplayed the COA statement saying it is no cause for alarm and is “not yet not final and executory.”
