Republe of he Phipps DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT DLGNAPOLCOM Conte EDSA come Quezon Avenue, Wet Trang, Quezon Cy tp fw cg.govsh 07 JAN i DILG OPINION NO. 4 _ HON. MATILDE K. HENSON-SALES Vice-Mayor Municipality of Pagudpud Province of Ilocos Norte Dear Vice-Mayor Henson-Sales: This has reference to your letter dated 8 October 2019, requesting the Department's clarification on the passage of Municipal Ordinance No. 2019B-040, or Supplemental Budget No. 3, enacted by the Sangguniang Bayan of Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte on 7 October 2019. Per your letter, during the session, all the members are present, eight (8) regular members, two (2) ex officio members, including you. Six (6) Sangguniang Bayan Members voted in favor and four (4) voted against the passage of Ordinance No, 20198-0404, You are now in a quandary on whether or not the Sangguniang Bayan Members who voted in favor of the ordinance is sufficient to authorize ‘Supplemental Budget No. 3 of Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. At the outset, we would like to inform you that the issue at hand has long been settled by the Department. In Legal Opinion No. 13, series of 2010, we opined that with respect to the enactment of the annual and supplemental appropriations, the law is silent as to what kind of majority vote is required. Thus, in its silence, the presumption is, the same is to be enacted only by a simple vote. The difference between a simple majority and a qualified majority is that in the former, it is that which is the majority of the members present, there being a quorum. On the other hand, a qualified majority is one wherein the total membership of the sanggunian is considered in determining a majority’, Jurisprudence defines majority as that which is 50% plus 1 or that which is greater than half of the membership of the body’. Let it be noted that the Presiding Officer should be counted for purposes of ascertaining the DILG Legal Opinion No. 23, series 2016 * Santiago vs. Guingona, et.al. G.R. No. 134577, 18 November 1998 S. 202existence of a quorum’, but not in the determination of the required number of votes necessary to uphold a matter before the sanggunian‘, In your letter, you represented that all the ten (10) Sangguniang Bayan Members were present, including you, as the Presiding Officer. Obviously, there was a quorum. Applying the afore-stated principle on simple majority, please find hereunder our computation thereof: 10 - number of members present (excluding the Vice-Mayor) 2 5 +4 a Accordingly, the required number of votes in passing Municipal Ordinance No. 2019B-040 was validly obtained, with the vote of 6 members being the majority of 10. We hope to have addressed your concern sufficiently. Very truly yours, By Authority of the Secretary: MARIVEL ¢. SACENDONCILLO, CESO IIT Undersecretary r CC: Dir. James F. Fadrilan, CESO III Regional Director DILG-Region I ww 2 * Section 53 of the LGC. Quorum - (a) A majority of all the members of the sanggunian who have been elected and qualified shall constitute a quorum to transact official business. Should a question of quorum be raised during a session, the presiding officer shall immediately proceed to call the roll of the members and thereafter announce the result. “Javier vs. Cadiao, G.R. No. 185369, 3 August 2016