H. No. 5609 / 53 OG No. 18, 6013 (September 30, 1957

[ REPUBLIC ACT NO. 1852, June 22, 1957 ]

AN ACT AMENDING AND REPEALING CERTAIN SECTIONS OF REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF DUMAGUETE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:SECTION 1. Section five of Republic Act Numbered Three hundred twenty-seven, otherwise known as the Charter of the City of Dumaguete, is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 5. The City not liable for damages.—The City shall not be liable or held for damages or injuries to persons or property arising from the failure of the Municipal Board, the Mayor or any other city officer or employee, to enforce the provisions of the Charter, or any other law or ordinance, or from negligence of said Municipal Board, Mayor or other city officers or employees while enforcing or attempting to enforce the provisions thereof."

SEC. 2. The second paragraph of section seven of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"He shall receive the salary provided for in Republic Act Numbered Eight hundred forty, and a non-commutable allowance of not exceeding five thousand pesos per annum."

SEC. 3. Section eleven of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 11. Constitution and organization of the Municipal Board; Compensation of members thereof.—The Municipal Board shall be the legislative body of the city and shall be composed of the Vice-Mayor, who shall be its presiding officer, and eight councilors, who shall be elected at large by popular vote during every election for provincial and municipal officials in conformity with the provisions of the Revised Election Code. The Vice-Mayor shall have no right to vote except in case of a tie. In case of sickness, absence, or other temporary incapacity of the Vice-Mayor, or when he acts as Mayor, the Board shall designate one of its members to sit as temporary presiding officer, With out additional compensation. In case of sickness, absence, suspension or temporary disability of any member of the Board, or if necessary to maintain a quorum, the President of the Philippines may appoint a temporary substitute who shall possess all the rights and perform all the duties of a member of the Board until the return to duty of the regular incumbent."If any member of the Municipal Board should be candidate for office in any election, he shall be disqualified to act with the Board in the discharge of the duties conferred upon it relative to election matters, and in such case the other members of the Board shall discharge said duties without his assistance, or the Mayor may choose some disinterested elector of the city to act with the Board it such matters in his stead."The members of the Municipal Board shall receive twenty-five pesos for each day of attendance of the session of the Board."

SEC. 4. The first paragraph of section thirteen of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 13. Appointment, salary, and duties of Secretary of Board.—The Board shall have a secretary who shall be appointed by the Mayor with the consent of the Board to serve during the term of office of the members thereof. The secretary shall receive the salary provided for in Republic Act Numbered Eight hundred forty. In case of disagreement between the Board and the Mayor, the Executive Secretary shall decide and his decision shall be final. A vacancy in the office of the secretary may be filled temporarily by the Mayor."

SEC. 5. Section fourteen of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 14. Method of transacting business by the Board.—Veto—Authentication and publication of ordinances.—Board shall hold one ordinary session for the transact of business during each week on a day which it shall fix by resolution, and such extraordinary sessions, not exceeding thirty during any one year, as may be called by the Mayor. It shall sit with open doors, unless otherwise ordered by an affirmative vote of five members. It shall keep a record of its proceedings and determine its rules of procedure not herein set forth. Five members of the Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. But a smaller number may adjourn from day to day and may compel the immediate attendance of any member absent without good cause by issuing to the police of the city an order for his arrest and production at the session under such penalties as shall have been previously prescribed by ordinance. Five affirmative votes shall be necessary for the passage of any ordinance, or of any resolution or motion directing the payment of money or creating liability, but other measures shall prevail upon the majority votes of the members present at any meeting duly called and held. The ayes and nays shall be taken and recorded upon the passage of all ordinances, upon all resolutions or motions directing the payment of money or creating liability, and at the request of any member, upon any other resolution or motion. Each approved ordinance, resolution or motion shall be sealed with the seal of the Board, signed by the presiding officer and the secretary of the Board and recorded in a book for the purpose and shall, on the day following its passage, be posted by the secretary at the main entrance to the city hall, and shall take effect and be in force on and after the tenth day following its passage unless otherwise stated in said ordinance, resolution or motion or vetoed by the Mayor as hereinafter provided. A vetoed ordinance, if repassed, shall take effect ten days after the veto is overridden by the required votes unless otherwise stated in the ordinance."Each ordinance and each resolution or motion directing the payment of money or creating liability enacted or adopted by the Board shall be forwarded to the Mayor for his approval. Within ten days after the receipt of the ordinance, resolution or motion, the Mayor shall return it with his approval or veto. If he does not return it within that time, it shall be deemed to be approved he returns it with his veto, his reasons therefor in writ shall accompany it, otherwise, the veto shall be null and void and the ordinance, resolution or motion considered as approved. If after it is validly vetoed, it is again enacted by the affirmative votes of six members of the Board, it shall be deemed approved. The Mayor shall have the power to veto any particular item or items of an appropriation ordinance, or of an ordinance, resolution or motion directing the payment of money or creating liability, but the veto shall not affect the item or items to which he does not object. The item or items objected to shall not take effect except in the manner heretofore provided in this section as to ordinances, resolutions, and motions returned to the Board with his veto, but should an item or items in an appropriation ordinance be disapproved by the Mayor, the corresponding item or items in the appropriation ordinance of the previous year shall be deemed restored unless otherwise expressly directed in the veto."

SEC. 6. Subsection (y) section fifteen of the same Act, is amended to read as follows:

"(y) Subject to the provisions of subsection (f) of section one thousand nine hundred one of the Administrative Code, to provide for the laying out, construction, and improvement, and to regulate the use, of streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, wharves, piers, parks, cemeteries, and other public places; to provide for lighting, cleaning, and sprinkling of streets and public places; to regulate, fix license fees for, and prohibit the use of the same for processions, signs, signposts, awnings, awning posts, the carrying or displaying of banners, placards, advertisements, or handbills or the flying of signs, flags, or banners, whether along, across, over or from buildings, along the same; to prohibit the placing, throwing, depositing, or leaving of obstacles of any kind, offal, garbage, refuse or other offensive matter or matters liable to cause damage, in the streets and other public places, and to provide for the collection and position thereof; to provide for the inspection of, fix the license fees for, and regulate the openings in the same for the laying of gas, water, sewer, and other pipes, the buildings and repair of tunnels, sewer, and drains, and all structures in and under the same, and the erecting of poles and the stringing of wires therein; to provide for and regulate cross-walks, curbs, and gutters therein; to name streets without a name and provide for regulate the numbering of houses and lots fronting thereon or in the interior of the blocks; to regulate traffic and sales upon the streets and other public places; to provide for the abatement of nuisances in the same and punish the authors or owners thereof; to provide for the construction and maintenance, and regulate the use of bridges, viaducts, and culverts; to prohibit or regulate ball playing, kite flying, hoop rolling, and other amusements which may annoy persons using the streets and public places, or frighten horses or other animals; to regulate the speed of horses and other animals, motor and other vehicles, cars, and locomotives within the limits of the city; to regulate the locating, constructing, and laying of the track of horse, electric, and other forms of railroad in the streets or other public places of the city authorized by law; unless otherwise provided by law, to provide for and change the location, grade, and crossing of railroads, and to compel any such railroad to raise or lower its track to conform to such provisions or changes; to require railroad companies to fence their property, or any part thereof, and to construct and repair ditches, drains, sewers, and culverts along and under their tracks, so that the natural drainage of the streets and adjacent property shall not be obstructed; and to regulate the location, installation, and operation of factories and/or other plants run by motor engines or or electricity, giving the owners or operators thereof at least one year to transfer to such places as may be designated in the city zonification ordinances. The Board may grant extension of time within which such transfer shall be effected, provided that such extension does not exceed one year."

SEC. 7. The first paragraph of section nineteen of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 19. Appointment and removal of officials and employees.—The President of the Philippines shall appoint, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, the judge and auxiliary judge of the municipal court, the city treasurer, the city engineer, the city attorney, the chief of police, and the other heads of such city department as may be created and not otherwise provided by law. Except the judge and the auxiliary judge of the municipal court, said officers shall hold office at the pleasure of the President: Provided, That the incumbent justice of the peace shall continue in office as judge of the municipal court without the necessity of a new appointment."

SEC. 8. Sub-section (g), section twenty-two of the same Act, is amended to read as follows:

"(g) He shall have the care and custody of all public docks, wharves, piers, levees, and landing places owned by the city, and the care and custody, supervision, administration and control of the Dumaguete pier, Dumaguete seawall, and all foreshore lands within the territorial jurisdiction of the city."

SEC. 9. The first paragraph of section twenty-four of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 24. The City Attorney—His powers and duties.— There shall be a city attorney and one assistant city attorney, who shall be the legal advisers of the city. The city attorney shall receive the salary provided for in Republic Act Numbered Eight hundred forty and the assistant city attorney shall receive a salary not exceeding three thousand one hundred and twenty pesos per annum. The city attorney shall have the following powers and duties:"

SEC. 10. The first paragraph of section twenty-five o the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 25. The Chief of Police—His powers, duties and compensation.—There shall be a chief of police who shall have charge of the police department. He shall receive the salary provided for in Republic Act Numbered Eight hundred forty. He shall have the following general powers and duties:"

SEC. 11. Section twenty-six of the same Act is repealed.SEC. 12. The first paragraph of section twenty-eight of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 28. Chief of Fire Department—His powers, duties, and compensation.—There shall be a chief of fire department who shall be appointed by the Mayor with the consent of the Municipal Board. He shall have charge of said department. He shall receive the salary provided for in Republic Act Numbered Eight hundred forty. He hall have the following general powers and duties:"

SEC. 13. Subsection (a), section thirty of the same Act, is amended to read as follows:

"(a) Lands or buildings owned by the Republic of the Philippines, the Province of Negros Oriental or the City of Dumaguete and burying grounds, churches, and their adjacent parsonages and convents, and lands or buildings used exclusively for, and actually devoted to, religious, charitable, scientific, or educational purposes, and not for profit: but such exemption shall not extend to lands or buildings hold for investment, lands and/or buildings not actually utilized and/or devoted to religious, charitable, scientific or educational purposes although they are owned by religious, charitable, scientific, or educational institutions, though the income therefrom be devoted to, and used for, religious, charitable, scientific, or educational purposes."

SEC. 14. Section seventy-four of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 74. Failure to enact an appropriation ordinance.— Whenever the Board fails to enact an appropriation ordinance for any fiscal year before the end of the previous fiscal year, the several sums appropriated in the last appropriation ordinance for the objects and purposes therein specified, so far as they may be done, shall be deemed to be reappropriated for the several objects and purposes specified in the said last appropriation ordinance, and shall go into effect on the first the day of the new fiscal year as the appropriation ordinance for the year, until a new appropriation ordinance is duly enacted.

"Any provision of existing laws to the contrary notwithstanding, the budget shall be submitted to the Department of Finance only in case of conflict between the Municipal Board and the City Mayor."

SEC. 15. The second and fourth paragraphs of section seventy-five of the same Act are amended to read follows:

"The municipal judge shall be allowed a vacation of not more than thirty days every year with salary, which vacation may be cumulated. The auxiliary municipal judge shall discharge the duties in case of absence, incapacity or inability of the municipal judge until he resumes his post, or until a new judge shall have been appointed. During his incumbency the auxiliary municipal judge shall enjoy the powers, emoluments and privileges of the municipal judge who shall not receive any remuneration therefor except the salary to which he is entitled by reason of his vacation provided for in this Act."The municipal judge shall receive the salary provided for in Republic Act Numbered Eight hundred forty."

SEC. 16. The first paragraph of section seventy-six of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 76. Clerk and employees of the municipal court.— There shall be a clerk of the municipal court who shall be appointed by the Secretary of Justice in accordance with Civil Service Law, rules and regulations, and who shall receive a compensation not exceeding two thousand four hundred pesos per annum. He shall keep the seal of the court and affix it to all orders, judgments, certified records, and other documents issued by the court, in which he shall keep a docket of the trials in the court, in which shall record in a summary manner the names of the parties and the various proceedings in civil cases, and in criminal cases, the name of the defendant, the charge against him, the names of the witnesses, the date of the arrest, the appearance of the defendant, together with the fines costs adjudged or collected in accordance with the judgment. He shall have the power to administer oath and to act as notary public ex officio."

SEC. 17. Section eighty-three of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 83. The General Auditing Office—City Auditor.—The City Auditor, under the supervision of the Auditor General shall receive and audit all accounts of the city, in accordance with the provisions of law relating to government accounts and accounting. He shall be appointed by the Auditor General and shall receive a salary of not exceeding four thousand eight hundred pesos per annum, fifty percent of which salary shall be payable from the funds of the city, and the remaining fifty percent, from National Funds."

SEC. 18. Section eighty-five of the same Act is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 85. The Bureau of Public Schools.—The Director of Public Schools shall exercise the same jurisdiction and powers in the city as elsewhere in the Philippines. There shall be a city superintendent of schools who shall be appointed by the Secretary of Education, and who shall receive a salary of not exceeding four thousand eight hundred pesos per annum. He shall have all the powers and duties in respect to the schools of the city as are vested in division superintendents in respect to schools of their divisions."A city school board of six members, two of whom shall be women and who shall serve without salary, shall be selected and removed in the same manner, and shall have the same powers and duties, as local school boards in the municipalities."The municipal board shall have the same powers in respect to the establishment of schools as are conferred by law on municipal councils."

SEC. 19. A new section, to be known as section eighty-nine-A, is inserted between sections eighty-nine and ninety of the same Act, to read as follows:

"SEC. 89-A. Relations between the City of Dumaguete and the Provincial Government of Negros Oriental.—The City of Dumaguete shall remain capital of the Province of Negros Oriental, unless otherwise provided by law. "All qualified voters of the City of Dumaguete shall be entitled to vote and to be voted upon in all provincial elective positions in accordance with the Revised Election Code."The Provincial Board of Negros Oriental shall have the right to appeal to the President of the Philippines any or all ordinances approved by the Municipal Board which affect the interests of the province."In consideration of the privileges and exemptions enjoyed by the Provincial Government within the City and of the responsibilities imposed upon the said city by its continuance as capital of the province, the Provincial board of Negros Oriental shall create a permanent and continuing annual appropriation of not less than ten thousand pesos to be credited to the general funds of the city. The Auditor General shall enforce the foregoing provision by causing to be transferred to the credit of the City of Dumaguete at the beginning of each year, from any funds in the Provincial Treasury of Negros Oriental, not otherwise appropriated, the sum of ten thousand pesos, unless the Provincial Government shall have previously voted a greater sum."

SEC. 20. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.Approved, June 22, 1957.

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