The vital role of a city or municipal council in crafting local legislation is, far too often, an overlooked aspect of local governance.
However, the Department of Interior and Local Government, through the Local Legislative Awards (LLA), now seeks to rectify that oversight by honoring local councils which legislate measures that help build “impactful” administration and government.
And for this year’s LLA, the city government of Biñan, Laguna ranked first among the Component Cities Category for the DILG’s provincial assessment, with a score of 96.5 percent.
For Biñan City Vice Mayor Gel Alonte, who is also the chairperson of the Sangguniang Panglungsod, the city’s high rankings are due to the employment of innovations to bring the SP’s services closer to the public, as well as the “true unity” showed by the members of the city council.
“Of course, nagkakaroon pa rin ng kaunting debate o pagtatalo, pero we see it na talagang magagawan ng solusyon [ang mga isyung pinagdedebatehan namin,” Alonte told OpinYon Laguna.
“Ang ginagawa naming [sa Sangguniang Panglungsod] ay ‘give or take,’ kung ano ang input o correction ng bawat isa, pinag-uusapan namin nang maayos bago tapusin lahat. Gusto naming siyempre, na maging mas maganda yung maipapasa naming resolution o ordinance,” he added.
First time
As Alonte related to OpinYon Laguna, this is the first time the city of Biñan entered into the LLA.
“Ngayon lang po kasi natin napansin na mayroon palang Local Legislative Award, so napagdesisyunan namin ng mga konsehal na sumubok at ipasok ang ating lungsod. Nakakatuwa naman po na matapos ang audit at inspection, kami na po ang lumabas na number one [sa assessment] dito sa Laguna,” he said. “Siyempre masaya po kami, at mas na-motivate po kami na mas pagandahin pa po ang aming mga trabaho dito sa Sangguniang Panglungsod.”
Changing voters’ mindset
With this new recognition given to the city government of Biñan City, Vice Mayor Alonte said he and the other councilors also want to serve as an example to voters on how to choose the members of their city councils during elections.
As part of their efforts to raise awareness on ordinary Biñanenses about the importance of the Sangguniang Panglungsod, he said the city council is now mulling to revive its program of holding “barangay sessions” where the councilors will hold special legislative sessions inside their barangays.
“Natigil lamang po ang programang ito dahil sa [barangay at Sangguniang Kabataan] elections, pero we’re planning to do this again,” Alonte told OpinYon Laguna. “Ang layunin po ng programang ito ay hindi lamang upang maibaba ang aming trabaho sa mga barangay kundi pati na rin mai-share sa ating mga kababayan kung ano ang trabaho ng legislative branch.”
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