No internal rules yet for City Council
The Sangguniang Panlungsod has yet to adopt its new internal rules. This is because the city council has not yet discussed the proposed changes on the rules.
Earlier, Majority Floorleader Eduardo Peñaredondo, who is also chairperson of the Committee on Rules, had moved that the matter, calendared as Item no. 1 in the agenda, be deferred for the next session day pending the conduct of a meeting among the councilors to discuss proposed changes on the existing rules of procedure.
City Councilor Eduardo Antiquiera, who had sought the chairmanship of the said committee last July but was prevailed upon to give way to the veteran Peñaredondo, argued on Wednesday that the Local Government Code of 1991 mandates that the Sanggunian, within ninety days after holding its first session, shall adopt a new internal rules of procedures.
"The matter has been calendared twice already, the 90-day period within which we are mandated by law to come up with a new set of internal rules of procedures is about to lapse. We need to take action on this now," said the neophyte city legislator.
‘Practically the same'
His argument, however, was debunked by Councilor Perla Zulueta, who said there is nothing to adopt or approve in the first place because the SP Secretariat is yet to take hold of a final draft of the proposed rules of procedure, a requirement before anything is deliberated upon on the plenary.
"It has been agreed that we would first meet to discuss the proposed changes before adopting the internal rules. But in a meeting set yesterday (Tuesday morning), only four of us came--Councilors Peñaredondo, Plagata, Tupas and myself. If you want changes in the rules, you should defend them before the others in a hearing of the Committee on Rules," the "Iron Lady of the City Council" averred.
"Besides, there's nothing really substantial with the proposed changes. Aside from the creation of another committee, the Committee on Moral Recovery, there's nothing earth-shaking with the proposed amendments; it's practically the same. In fact, those who were present last Tuesday decided to just adopt the old one. After all, if the national budget can be reenacted for three years, why not the internal rules of the Sanggunian?" she further quipped.
Provisional rules
When Antiquiera pressed on with his stand to have a new set of rules adopted by the body because "it was in the agenda," Zulueta again took the floor to tell him that the reason why the matter was calendared in the agenda was because of the presumption that the meeting would take place the following Tuesday and a decision as regards the proposed changes is reached.
"But you're nowhere to be seen. After waiting for 30 minutes, we decided to just go home. But certainly, we would not allow the adoption of a new set of internal rules without the proposed changes first discussed and deliberated upon in a committee hearing," the fiery lady legislator from Molo added.
"As for the 90-day period within which to adopt the rules, I don't think we should really be in a hurry. As far as I can remember, we have passed a resolution provisionally adopting the existing rules of procedures during the session of July 11 and I believe that would do for the moment until we could pass a new one," Zulueta said in conclusion.
After the heated discussions, that again necessitated a recess, it was agreed that the councilors would meet on Monday morning to discuss the proposed changes to the internal rules of procedures.