oc © DEP, epi of the Phitppines ARI eat) OF THE INTERIOR AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT "elsco Gold Conslominkans Ml, EDSA eo. Mapanimatal St Ditiman, Quezon Cky OFFICE OF THE UNDERSECRETARY FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT ee MAYOR RAMON A. ILAGAN Cainta, Rizal Dear Sir: This refers to your r est for legal opinion regarding the acti = ys taken by members of your Sangguniang Bayan and the Presiding Officer th ‘ | ‘You stated that on 16 October 2006, you submitted to the Sanggunian the executive budget for year 2007. After committee hearings and several deliberations thereon, the appropriation ordinance for 2007 was finally approved ees and signed by 6 members of the Sanggunian in a session conducted therein. \ According to you, the Minutes clearly indicated that the members of the y political opposition voted against the passage of the budget. Furthermore, the Presiding Officer, who took refused to sign ar oppositionist and ob nist pasture, nthe altestation portion of the ordinance, The obyious motive, according to you, is to show that no ordinance was passed when in truth and in 1 +t fact, there was a ordinance approved Sanggunian which is the majority of all the me nd signed by 6 members of the hers of that Sanggunian. { \ You now posed the query as to whether or not you « 2007 annual appropriations when 1 heen validly approved and signed by 9 1. the presiding officer. now implement the horizing the san prity of 6 me has already ers, but unattested by In reply thereto, may we first dwell on according 10 you, the ordinance was approved by a majority of @ members. In | this regard, we note that your municipality fas an T-member Sanggenian, broken down as follows: the Vice Mayor as Presiding Officer, the 8 regular members, the Liga ng imga Barangay President as ex-officio member, and the SK Federation President also as ewofficio member, thus totaling to 11 membe £ proportion which, In determining a quorum, Section 53 of the Local Government Code provides that a majority of all the members of the sanggunian who have been elected and qualified shall constitute a quo ‘Along this line, it bears to ‘emphasize that per Section 446 of the Local Government Code, the Sangguniang Bayan is a composite body where the Vice Mayor as Presiding Olficer is a composite member thereof, “Majority” has been defined by jurisprudence as that which is $0%+ 1 or that number which is greater than half of the membership of the body. We note, however, that using either formula will give us the same result. fo illustrate, using the 50% + 1 formula, the 50% of a Sanggunian composed of 1H members is 5.5. il- 5.5 ' Sang gunian, i 1 will give us 6.5. the higher Niele logical thing the other half, then 6 do is eithwr to round off 6.6 to 7, whic Hun! * iy Bee 1 Ro dowen ©, whichis the lower whole number, On 1 © The second Ait ‘ vis th i snproptatt the above discussion, heb wets who eee for 2007 is, th Besides, a where all of them were pri presiding alficer ne of a tie, such as 5 in favor and 5 not in favor ve Which secant , ly to break a ti cast his vote by choosing clearly show ‘thal a ie ue nt vote will be 6-5. These iHusteations would: thus rol tie at 2 sate of 6 is already sufficient to come up with aw Sanggunian. Applying this to your situa isa fact that all the Mbers of that Sa allended the session where the questioned e vole of 6 in that pa and signed by ‘Iment c bers present i quorum, and incidentally, even the vote Sangg! é they were all prese vote of ring, a of 6 is th icular session the jority of all the mbers of the session. ider 0, may we first uote that in the legislative py macted by the 5 On the issue of atles @ proposed ordinance shall first be Local Chief Executive for his #, the enacted ord e is now called appre e Mayor specific provision that the . What Section 445 of the Code ce Mayor to be the Presiding Officer of the pitted to tl completed, the or enacted ordinance will now be sut approval. If this process has t was approved by the Mayor, the ordinance. A perusal of the powers, di Section 445 of the Local Government Code Vice Mayor shall certily to simply provided was angAu i Bayan. ys of the der retary to the Sangg es of the S Corollarily, one of the du Section 469 (c) of the Local Government Code approval copies of ordinances enacted by the Sangy! ding Officer, At this junctur Government Code which provides that “in fle event sgular Presiding Officer to presite at a session, constituting a quorum, shall elec Presiding Officer. He shall certify within 10 enacted and resolutions adopted by the Sanggunian in the sesston 0 temporarily presided”. ys from the passage af ordi Clearly from this provision, certify is not more appertaining to bein Presiding Officer. Thus, whoever presi certify the enacted ordinance. ’ to forward to the Mayor for anand duly certified by the e, may we point out Section 49 (b) of the Local of the inability of the the members present and t from among theniselves a Temporary nes ver winch: he it would now become clearer that the duly te ga Vice Mayor but more appurtenant [0 0 ides over the session would be the one tothe formal assertion inv writing of some fact. To He oF vouch for a thing in we ting and to attest to : on the other hand, attestation has been defined Phil Pas a witness te a format legal document, ¢. al bebe i Encyclopedia, p. 65). From the said defini Barus ha lest is to bear witness to the execution of some will or al the act of attesting is mot ministerial i ature, once a oan act a nd is required by law or established procedures to oe ie discretion he once enjoyed becomes a mandatory © fact he is to attest did, indeed, happen and thal the «Ss is indeed truthful as represented, represented. if One's nay Corollarily, Passage of an ordi Ww Ta y dinance w : oe ve and (2) procedural. Ina long line of Provided for the test of av 1 ordi ie Ce a Statute: (2) ieee en ator: CH) HOL pte : : Mureasonable, and (6) ninst be Re Bee pei seratice” (Magtajas vs, Pryce Properties, GR. No. 11109 ate » The fo iB requisites are the substantive aspects of a valid nce. On the other hand, the procedural aspects of an ordinance are found n the Internal Rules of Procedure of the concerned Sanggunian and the established parliamentary procedures provided for by law, jurisprudence or Practices, whenever applicable ld involve two aspects, towit: (1) ses, the Supreme Court already nce, which are: “(1) must not contravene nist nol be unfair-er oppressive (3) must nit but may regulate trade; eral it application and To our mind, attestation or certification is not one of the substantive requirement but is only a procedural requirement in the passage of an ordin: Thus, worthy of note is the case of Arroyo vs. de Venecia (G.R. No. 12755, June 1998), where the Supreme Court ruled that matters of violal procedure or the Internal Rules of the deliberative body will not affect the of a law. Applying the court ruling, the logical conclusion is that the lack of allestation, therefore, being a matter of procedural rule, should not affect the legality of the subject ordinance. In this regard, if we are to consider attestation as part of the substantive requirement of passage of an ordinance, then the failure or refusat of the Presiding Officer to attest an enacted ordinance could easily defeat the substantive expression of the majority of the Sanggunian by bis mere expedience of refusing or not attesting to the enacted ordinance. It could never have been the intention of Congress to give wide latitude of powers to the Presiding Officer to withhold his attestation or certi ication on the enacted measure thereby holding the expression of the majority of the Sangguniaa members hostage to his sole democracy under the rule of majority in giving a particular deliberative body the power fo rule upon in any presented issue. Instead, the rule in such a case iy the expression of the majority members thereof. We, therefore, believe that even without the allestation of the Presiding Officer, if the ordinance can be certified to be true and correct by some other official sent the session, such as the Secretary to the Sanggunian, there procedural process of enacting ano Fé iscretion. Definitely, this is not the essence of. ee¢ for 2007 can and 327 of the Local Government Code effectivity of ordinances or resolutions, aks of effectivity of budgets which clearly finance. idering that the ordi nance a hould be governed sovernment Code, the fatter se kind of Ordinance, Sec budget shall lake ef WW issue is an appropriations ordinance, its nol by Secti but by Section 320 of the Local ction being the one specifically applicable for such Nn 320 thus states that the ordinance enac ing the annual fect at the beginning of the ensuing calendar year. ity si Corollarily, Section 327 of the Colle provides for the power of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to review app ations ordinances of cot cities and Municipalit lit the second Panlalawigan is mandated to take action wil the appropri Sangguniang gan withi have been reviewed in accorda and effect. Under the second» Panlalawigan shall, within the 90-day. pe advise the Sa Tao nayan concerned, through the Local Chief Executive, of any act ‘ ace ordinance on review, whether there ar is disallowed, declared inoperative or reduced by the Sangguniang Panlalawig Upon receipt of such advice, the 90 days from receipt If no action is taken by the 4d, the same shall be dee ue Lo be i of said section, the Sanggun from any of the items of the ap disallowed or reduced, s of law taken all together would show that a ipal appropriations ordinance shall take effect at the a oe ensuing eeee atl ending review at the Sangguniang il i the same is pending review notwithstanding that e i anggun pal |. a an level. On this note, it bears to enypha ize that effectivity es tn gaan not the same and that the subject of the review by the Sangguniang Meemtat not the effectivily but the validity of the appropri tions ordinance. ‘ validity of the appropriations. ordinance is still n, the appropriations ordinance, The foregoing provis' Panlalawiga ¢ i ne even if the Such being the case, : Bor i iew by the Sangguniang Panlalaw ; subject 1 elective at the start of the ensuing year, as expressly peu Hao a fthe Code, That the appropriation ordinance is aeney e mee seas ‘i ” ne ensuing year even pending review pe ee bn Se itself which provided that for the fai ings of the law itself which p j Bile the tr isle to act within 90 ee oe ser a Seared ed in accords with law and shall continue full eananaeate r sion 1 the tae ThE ition is even further bolstered by another prov: -t. This proposition is and effect same section which provided that upon eceipt of i. ae es - ie : a Se Sangguniang, Panlalawigan, the Munici ‘ further disbursements of fundsWe hope to have enlightened you on the matter. Very truly yours, Ae WENGELITO 1. ANDANAR, ae Undersecretary, er Legal:43/La cc: Director Roberto C. Abejero DILG — Region IV-A FT Complex, Taguig City