Implementing the Law

September 2, 2019 Sideglance

The campaign by Mayor Benjie Magalong and the city government to restore order and discipline in the city is gaining both positive and negative reviews from the citizenry.

For those demanding cleaner surroundings, more spacious sidewalks and wider streets their prayers seemed answered when Mayor Magalong started to strictly implement laws in the locality.

For some, the rigid adherence to the rule of law seems to have rubbed them the wrong way and is clamoring for a more lenient application or favorable consideration of their plight and situation.

But in order to have a better understanding of the workings of government particularly in the local level there is a need to define its various functions in relation to dispensing public service.

We can glimpse a reasonable explanation from Republic Act 7160 otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991 as amended, the law that governs all local government units around the country to include the City of Baguio and its barangays.

It is in that law where the powers, functions, duties and responsibilities of the local chief executive of a city or municipality are spelled out. In paragraph (2), letter (b) of Section 455, Article I Chapter III of the Local Government Code it says there that: “(b) For efficient, effective and economical governance the purpose of which is the general welfare of the city and its inhabitants pursuant to Section 16 of this Code, the city mayor shall: (2) Enforce all laws and ordinances relative to the governance of the city and in the exercise of the appropriate corporate powers provided for under Section 22 of this Code, implement all approved policies, programs, projects, services and activities of the city and, in addition to the foregoing, shall: xxx,”

There it is, clear as day, the city mayor is mandated to enforce all laws and ordinance for the effective governance of the city. While others might see the actions of Mayor Magalong as being too extreme when it comes to enforcing the law one must also understand that he is only doing his job of faithfully executing and implementing the provisions of the law as required of him, nothing more and nothing less.

For once the City of Baguio is experiencing a renewal of sorts, a so called ‘eureka moment’ where the people suddenly realize that for a very long time the laws of the city have been taken for granted and more often than not it is the exemption rather than the rule that is followed.

So this time around perhaps the people of Baguio, or those who want a better city for themselves or the succeeding generations would come to appreciate the efforts of their top executive who would wish only to see that the laws of the land are faithfully observed and obeyed.

Of course some considerations might still be made since we are only human after all but these will obviously be granted only when and only if the duties and responsibilities of the mayor as a public servant to the people of Baguio are not compromised or degraded.