The Sangguniang Panlungsod authorized Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella to sign the P90 million garbage hauling contract with Enviroking Corporation, during a special session yesterday.
Councilor Caesar Distrito yesterday said he refused to vote in favor of the contract because under R.A. 9184, before a contractor is allowed to bid, it should have an experience of 50 percent of the Approved Budget of the Contract. Since the ABC is P90 million, Enviroking should have an experience of P45 million single and not aggregate contract. An Aggregate contract is only allowed if there was a failure of bidding, he said. In this case, there was no failure of bidding since the Bids and Awards Committee only disqualified the other bidder (IPM Construction) for a minor defect, Distrito said. “They also included in the experience the hospital waste contract, when the toxic and hospital wastes are supposed to be separated from the general waste. So EnviroKing qualified,” he said. Distrito said the contract of P90 million will cover 10 months, which means that the city will have to pay Enviroking P9 million a month, regardless of the volume of garbage it will collect. He cited, for example, that if the garbage truck of the contractor breaks down and it fails to collect garbage for one day, the city will still have to pay it P9 million a month. That is why he voted in the negative, he said. Distrito said he is in favor of the privatization of garbage collection but not this kind of provision in the contract which he considers disadvantageous to the city. The contract of the city with Enviroking Corporation on sustainable system of solid waste hauling and disposal services covers the period March 1 to December 31, in the amount of P89,970,000. Enviroking Corporation general manager Erwin Buot assured the legislators that they will render door-to-door service in the 61 barangays of Bacolod City. He said they will provide a separate garbage truck to collect garbage in the public markets and a separate one for hospital wastes. He also said they have shipped 20 units of garbage trucks from Manila to Bacolod. Verdeflor said Enviroking has been collecting the garbage of San Juan, Metro Manila, and other cities in Manila for more than 20 years already. BAC chairman Jerome Solinap said only Enviroking Corporation qualified because they were informed by Metrowaste Solidwaste Management, whose contract with the city expires today, that it is no longer interested in renewing its contract with Bacolod City. Present during the special session were Councilors El Cid Familiaran, Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Sonya Verdeflor, Ana Marie Palermo, Claudio Puentevella, Noli Villarosa, Archie Baribar,and Wilson Gamboa, Jr., who all belong to the majority bock. Also present were Councilors Roberto Rojas and Alex Paglumotan, Department of Public Services head Josephus Cerna.*CGS Visayan Daily Star
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The Bacolod Sanggunaing Panlungsod passed on first reading yesterday an ordinance “Naming the public building known as the Bacolod City Government Center as the People’s House of Bacolod City,” despite the opposition of Councilor Caesar Distrito.
Distrito, chairman of the SP Committee on Laws, Ordinances and Good Government, said he opposed the move to rename the Bacolod City Government Center citing Section 12 of the Local Government Code which requires local governments to establish a government center. This is a specific provision that deals with the name of the government center, and therefore renaming it by an ordinance is a violation of the law because an ordinance cannot supersede a law, he said. While Section 13 of the Local Government Code is a generic provision that deals with public structures, streets and buildings, other than the government center which is already provided in Section 12, he said. Therefore, if there is a conflict between a specific and generic provision, the specific provision will prevail, Distrito said. Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, chair of the SP Committee on History, Arts and Culture, said, the status of the building is as is. Only the name was made official, and that the public building of the city is named the People’s House of Bacolod. Distrito said the history of the edifice shows that the purpose of the same is to name it as government center, and incumbent leaders should at least give some respect to their former leader’s intention. An informal consultation he conducted showed that people are against renaming the BCGC to People’s House, he said. The ordinance was jointly authored by Councilors El Cid Familiaran, Archie Baribar, Ana Marie Palermo, Wilson Gamboa, Jr, Batapa-Sigue, Sonya Verdeflor, Claudio Puentevella, and Noli Villarosa, all perceived to be associated with Mayor Monico Puentevella. The government center costs the city P400 million and was constructed during the administration of then Mayor and now Bacolod Rep. Evelio Leonardia.*CGS BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO Visayan Daily Star A special session will be held at 1:30 p.m. today on the request of Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella for authority for him to sign the contract with Enviroking Corp. for the hauling of garbage in Bacolod City.
Bacolod Councilor Em Ang said the Sangguniang Panlungsod did not act on the request during their session yesterday after Councilor Caesar Distrito pointed out that the copy of the memorandum of agreement between the city and Enviroking Corp. was only submitted to them noontime yesterday so they did not have time to study and scrutinize its content. Ang said Councilor Archie Baribar wanted the SP to act on the matter since the contract of Enviroking Corp. starts on March 1 and he was concerned that garbage may not be collected. The deliberation lasted for about 30 minutes because Baribar wanted to also include the ratification of the contract when they had not yet received a request, she said. Ang said they only received a copy of the MOA at about 11 a.m. yesterday and it was not stated in the contract how much Enviroking Corp. will be charging for garbage collection. What they are approving is an authority to sign in favor of the city and their function is to provide check-and-balance, and to make sure to scrutinize the content of the contract, she said. It does not mean they are objecting or not approving the request. They just want the SP members to be given time to read and scrutinize the contract, Ang said. She recalled that Distrito had called for a public hearing and submitted a committee report before they authorized former Mayor and now Bacolod Rep. Evelio Leonardia to sign the contract with Metrowaste Solidwaste Management. But Baribar said they do not have enough time since the contract of Enviroking starts on March 1 while the contract of Metrowaste with the city ends tomorrow, she said. Councilor El Cid Familiaran pointed out that Enviroking charges P89,970,000 which is less by P30,000 than Metro Waste Solid Management Corp., which cost the city P90 million. Distrito said that it took them another week to ratify the contract of Metrowaste after they conducted a committee hearing and authorized the former Mayor to sign the MOA with the contractor. He said a representative of the BAC told them that the Mayor has the power to extend the contract of Metrowaste in the exigency of the service. It is their duty to scrutinize the contract and they want to exercise their function especially that this contract involves P90 million of people’s money, he added. Distrito said “If the majority will force us to act on it, that is a violation of the rights of the minority.” They want to provide check-and-balance so, “Let us review it well and afterwards let us make an informed decision after we hear from our resource speakers,” he said.*CGS BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO Visayan Daily Star DURING the second and third weekly episodes of my teleradyo program “Aksyon Legal” over DYEZ Aksyon Radyo and Sky Cable I decided to take a peek at those city ordinances that have been passed by the Sangguniang Paanlungsod but for one reason or another were never implemented. I had as my first guest former councilor Atty. Lyndon Cana, and Councilors Archie Baribar and El Cid Familiaran during the most recent episode. What they told me and the radio and TV audience was unexpected.
If the experience of my three guests are taken as a guide, it seems that almost half of the city ordinances that our Sanggunian approved during all these years and ratified by a succession of city mayors have not been implemented. Councilor Baribar even cited one ordinance passed during the 1960s, one that required all business establishments to have at least one light bulb turned on in front of their stores or offices at night. I can imagine how bright and safe Bacolod City would have been at night if the frontage of all stores and offices in Bacolod were lighted. To think that implementation is all that is needed here! Why are these ordinances, where huge time, money and effort were expended to make them into law, languishing in the archives of City Hall when they could have been used to benefit our City and our citizens? Why are they wasting and gathering dust instead? My guests gave several possible answers. One, because the reality is that in spite of declarations of unity and cooperation, a chasm still separates the mayors with the councilors when it comes to needed legislation. Councilor El Cid noted that the SP members author ordinances that they feel are needed by the city residents, but invariably have little idea what the mayor wants. What therefore happens is that ordinances are passed but many are shunted aside and eventually forgotten because in the mind of the mayor they are not urgent. El Cid offered a practical solution: why don’t the mayors have their assistants make drafts of ordinances which they think ought to be given priority by the SP, and then submit them to the councilors for deliberation and passage? If the councilors agree with his sense of priority, the ordinance will be passed and will in all likelihood implemented by the Mayor’s Office because that is where it would have emanated from in the first place. Councilor Baribar noted that it is the job of the executive assistants of the mayor to check what ordinances need the Mayor’s action and to prioritize them for actual implementation. He said that with the many daily responsibilities that the chief executive has to attend to he cannot be expected to know or to remember these ordinances. Many city ordinances, good ones at that, have been neglected this way, said Councilor Archie. Both Atty. Cana and El Cid Familiaran pointed to the City Development Council (CDC) as the most ideal bridge to close the gap between the passage by the SP of city ordinances and their implementation by the Office of the Mayor. They said the CDC is the ideal body to determine what the citizens need, the ordinances that the SP should pass to address this need, and the body to convince the city mayor to implement them, once passed. Both however regretted that the CDC is not performing this vital function. We think it’s time it did. Finally, there’s truth in the observation of many that while the ordinances are supposed to benefit the people, many do not even know these pieces of good legislations exist. Without an informed citizenry reminding City Hall to carry out the provisions of these ordinances, it is not surprising that they gather dust instead of momentum. By Andy H. Hagad Sun.Star Bacolod EIGHT members of the City Council of Bacolod are proposing an ordinance that will authorize the renaming of the Bacolod Government Center (BGC) into the People's House.
The proponents are councilors Archie Baribar, El Cid Familiaran, Wilson Gamboa, Ana Marie Palermo, Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Sonya Verdeflor, Claudio Puentevella, and Noli Villarosa. The proposed ordinance cites Article 21, Section E of the Implementing Rules of the Local Government Code of 1991 that grants authority to the SP of highly urbanized cities to name any public place or building owned by the city. In 2007, the City of Bacolod constructed a government building known as the “New Government Center” to house its administrative offices, it said. The building was constructed at the expense of the people of Bacolod through a loan of P400 million where the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of the city was used to guarantee payment for the next 15 years, according to the ordinance. The taxpayers of Bacolod City can thus rightfully claim that such structure belongs to the people of Bacolod. Naming the structure the People’s House will instill a sense of ownership, common pride and enduring identity to Bacolodnons, the bill added. Former City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan said anything related to former mayor and now Bacolod Representative Evelio Leonardia is just unacceptable to Mayor Monico Puentevella. Bayatan cited as an example the welcome marker at the Bacolod Public Plaza, which is a replica of the government center, has been covered by a giant tarpaulin using the excuse that there is an occasion. “What good will it render to Bacolod if the name of the government center is changed. It is a waste of energy and time of the SP,” he said. Bayatan said the SP should devote their time to other productive and meritorious ordinances and resolutions and not in changing the name of government center to whatever name they wish, especially so that the name adopted by the Leonardia administration is sourced from a national law, Section 12 of the Local Government Code. “This is politics in high gear by Puentevella and his “Monico inspired politicians,” he said. Bayatan said these actions will only cause division among the people. “If these are the type of politicians that we have, we can expect more actions from them that will further divide the people of Bacolod,” he added. By Carla N. Canet Sun.Star Bacolod The plant manager of the Bacolod City Slaughterhouse in Brgy. Handumanan, Bacolod City, was warned by Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella yesterday that the city will terminate the operation of the facility if it fails to comply the provisions of the contract entered into by AVM Bernardo Engineering and the Bacolod City Government.
The city might also take over the operation of the slaughterhouse if it could handle it someday, Puentevella said, during the hearing conducted by the Committee on Markets chaired by Councilor Sonya Verdeflor on the request of AVM Bernardo Engineering to impose 12 percent VAT on slaughtering fees. Puentevella said he ordered the review of the MOA after the meat shop vendors complained that the slaughterhouse operator plans to pass on to them the 12 percent VAT being imposed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. He asked why they are imposing the 12 percent VAT only now. He also pointed out that the slaughterhouse operator has not submitted its annual report and evaluation of the operation of the slaughterhouse. Puentevella said if they do not comply, the city will terminate its operation or allow them to operate, but will put up another slaughterhouse to give the people a choice. Plant manager Glorydee Cometa said they only imposed the 12 percent VAT recently because it was only early this year that their official receipt was issued. Marvin Tañada, legal counsel of AVM Bernardo, said this is a national law set forth in Section 105 of the Internal Revenue Code, which states that the VAT is imposed on any trader, manufacturer or retailer and can be passed on to buyers. Any tax which may be imposed is not inclusive of the slaughtering rates based on Article 4 of Section 15 and is allowed by the MOA, he said. Michael Yusingco, president of the Meat Vendor's Association of Bacolod, said they oppose the imposition of 12 percent VAT, especially because prices of pork meat have increased. He said pork meat is P190 to P200 per kilo while beef is P200 per kilo and may reach P226 per kilo if they will be imposed additional taxes. Aside from the 12 percent VAT imposed by AVM Bernardo, they are paying the city P20 per hog and P60 per cattle daily, he added. Yusingco said the MOA is disadvantageous to them and to the city. He also complained about the facilities of the slaughterhouse and the way slaughtered animals are being handled. AVM Bernardo was issued a notice of violation last week by the City Legal Office and asked to correct its violations in accordance with the provisions of the MOA, following its review on the operation of the Bacolod City Slaughterhouse. The CLO cited that the operator failed to provide the machineries and equipment embodied in the agreement like cold storage facilities; cattle, hog, and poultry line equipment, among others. Present at the committee hearing were Councilor El Cid Familiaran, acting City Veterinarian Dr. Agueda de la Torre, acting City Treasurer Giovanni Balalilhe, acting Libertad Market Supervisor Portia Familiaran, Burgos Market Supervisor Kong Heng Ting, CLO Asset Management Case Review Committee head Cesar Beloria, and representatives of the CLO, City Health Office.*CGS BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO Visayan Daily Star Aksyon Radyo Bacolod’s socio civic arm Operation Tulong Task Force in cooperation with the Provincial Health Office - Negros First Provincial Blood Center and Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) recently held a bloodletting activity dubbed as "Dugo mo, Kabuhi Ko 2014," last Friday, February 14 at the Negros Occidental Multi Purpose Activity Center and was able to generate 117 units of blood.
Supporting the bloodletting activity were the John B. Lacson Colleges Foundation, Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, 303rd Infantry Brigade-Philippine Army, BJMP-NODJ, Bacolod Convention Baptist Bible College, MID Security Agency, Barangays 40, 26, 23, Handumanan, Taculing and Banago, Nature’s Spring Water Resources, Inc., Bacolod Councilors El Cid Familiaran, Jun Gamboa as well as the employees and drama talents of Aksyon Radyo Bacolod. OTTF Chairman Art Tayhopon, said the blood collected will definitely be of huge help for indigent patients who often troop to the station which is incidentally located in front of a government hospital. Members of Operation Tulong Task Force are Art Tayhopon, Wilma Sugaton, Nona Magbanua, Sunshine Lacson, Felix Campaniel Jr., Henry Espulgar and Johnny Buguina III.* Negros Daily Bulletin The Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Markets and Slaughterhouse chaired by Councilor Sonya Verdeflor held a public hearing yesterday on the proposed ordinance granting 20 percent discount to stall awardees or lessees who promptly pay their monthly stall block rentals, a press release from City Hall said.
The proposed ordinance is authored by Councilor El Cid Familiaran, chairman of the Committee on Government Assets. The measure states that through the passage of City Ordinance No. 407 Series of 2006, City Ordinance No. 589 Series of 2011 and City Ordinance No. 615 Series of 2012, the city has been granting market stall awardees tax relief on the surcharges, interests, penalties and arrearages on their rental obligations. It also provides that those market awardees or lessees who are beneficiaries of such ordinance are not religious or prompt taxpayers, but they have been given by the city tax relief on their unpaid market rentals, the press release said. The presidents of the market vendors associations operating at the Burgos North Public Market were present to air their concerns, the release also said. City Administrator Rolando Villamor, City Legal Officer Sarah Villamor, CLO Enforcement Unit Head Rey Demesana and Market Supervisors Portia Familiaran and Kong Heng Ting, were also present, the press release added.* Visayan Daily Star The bloodletting activity of Operation Tulong Task Force, the socio-civic arm of Aksyon Radyo Bacolod, generated 117 units of blood in the event held at the Negros Occidental Multi-Purpose Activity Center in Bacolod City February 14, a press release from the station said.
It was in cooperation with the Provincial Health Office Negros First Provincial Blood Center, and the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, and supported by the John B. Lacson Colleges Foundation, Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, 303rd Infantry Brigade Philippine Army, BJMP-NODJ, Bacolod Convention Baptist Bible College, MID Security Agency, barangays 40, 26, 23, Handumanan, Taculing and Banago, Nature’s Spring Water Resources Inc., Bacolod councilors El Cid Familiaran and Jun Gamboa, and the employees and drama talents of the radio station, the press release also said. Task Force chairman Art Tayhopon said the blood collected will be of a big help to indigent patients, who often troop to the station located in front of the government hospital. Other members of the task force are Wilma Sugaton, Nona Magbanua, Sunshine Lacson, Felix Campaniel Jr., Henry Espulgar and Johnny Buguina III. For more details, those interested may contact Tayhopon at 434-3861 or 708-1237, the press release added.* Visayan Daily Star The installation of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in all public elementary and high schools in Bacolod City is being proposed by Bacolod Councilor El Cid Familiaran.
Familiaran said installing CCTV cameras, or surveillance recordings, in all of the city’s elementary and high schools will be an effective tool in curbing if not preventing crimes in these areas. He said the employment of CCTV cameras by any entity purposely to record factual evidence of crime has been proven to be effective in deterring acts of lawlessness. He said the CCTV cameras or video surveillance system to be installed in the public schools should meet the minimum technical standards and should be operated in coordination with the City Mayor’s Office and the Bacolod City Police Office. The head of the school or its personnel will be prohibited from viewing or using any saved or archived recorded data through camera or video recordings, he said. The unauthorized disclosure of the identity of any person on video is prohibited, without the order of the proper court, except for the complainant, he added. He said the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Bacolod had previously passed City Ordinance No. 595, series of 2012, or the “Bacolod City Eye in the Sky Comprehensive Closed Circuit Television Ordinance”. They also passed C.O. No. 600, series of 2012, or “An Ordinance Requiring all Banks and other Financial Institutions, as well as Certain Business Establishments within the City of Bacolod to install CCTV within their premises,” he said.*CGS Visayan Daily Star |
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