Cebu City Council


The Cebu City Council is the legislature of Cebu City, Philippines. The legislative body is composed of 18 councilors, with 16 councilors elected from Cebu City's two councilor districts and two elected from the ranks of barangay chairmen and the Sangguniang Kabataan. The council's presiding officer is the vice-mayor. The council is responsible for creating laws and ordinances under the jurisdiction of Cebu City. Although the mayor can veto proposed bills, the council can override the veto with a two-thirds supermajority.

History

In 1937, four municipalities were officially converted into cities. With the largest population and number of registered voters at the time, Cebu City was allocated eight members for its city council. On February 24, 1937, at the promulgation of the Cebu City charter, the eight inaugural members of the council were sworn in: Jose P. Nolasco, Dominador Abella, Diego Cañizares, Leandro Tojong, Manuel Roa, Felipe Pacaña, Regino Mercado and Jose Fortich.
On December 10, 1940, eight members were elected to the council: Leandro A. Tojong, Juan Zamora, Honorato S. Hermosisima, Florencio Urot, Florentino D. Tecson, Ramon U. Abellanosa, Cecilio dela Victoria, and Numeriano Estenzo. Their election was confirmed in Executive Order No. 315, s. 1940, signed on December 28, 1940 by President Manuel Quezon.
The post-war city council was convened on July 1, 1945, and was composed of Honorato S. Hermosisima, Cecilio dela Victoria, Florencio S. Urot, Numeriano G. Estenzo, Eugenio G. Corro, Canuto O. Borromeo, Alfonso S. Frias and Miguel Sanson. On July 5, 1945, Cebu City Ordinance No. 1, "An Ordinance regulating the establishment and maintenance of cockpits in the City of Cebu", was passed; the city's first ordinance, it was also the first cockpit ordinance in the Philippines and was authored by Councilor Cecilio dela Victoria. Another ordinance was Cebu City Ordinance No. 4, "An Ordinance Appropriating Funds for the necessary expenses of the Government of the City of Cebu during the period from July first Nineteen Hundred Forty-Five to September Thirtieth Nineteen Hundred Forty-Five, and for other purposes". In this appropriation ordinance, the total per diems for the eight council members was.

Seat

The council sits at Cebu City Hall, meeting in the Dona Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal Session Hall of the Cebu City Legislative Building. The renovated CCLB was inaugurated on July 24, 2008 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, assisted by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Vice Mayor Michael Rama. The building cost to renovate, of which came from the Philippine Tourism Authority.
The hall was named for Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal, the mother of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
During its September 3, 2019 session, the city council approved an ordinance institutionalizing the conduct of regular and special sessions outside of its current session hall. These sessions would also be aired live on the official Facebook page of the Cebu City's Public Information Office.

Membership

Each of Cebu City's two councilor districts elects eight members of the council. In plurality-at-large voting, a voter may vote for up to eight candidates and the candidates with the eight highest numbers of votes are elected. Barangay and SK chairs throughout the city each elect a representative to the council, for a total of 18 councilors. City-council elections are synchronized with other elections in the country, which have been held on the second Monday of May every third year since 1992.

Blocs

As of July 2, 2019, the council is divided into two blocs: the Majority Bloc and the Minority Bloc. The Majority Bloc is composed primarily of councilors who won under BARUG-PDP-Laban, and the Minority Bloc is composed mainly of councilors who won under BOPK-LDP.
Eight of the council's 16 generally-elected seats were won by BOPK-allied councilors in the 2019 elections. However, just a few months after the proclamation, the candidacy certificates of the winning candidates in the 1st District – Alvin Arcilla and Sisinio Andales – were cancelled by the Commission on Elections, however, allowing Councilors Jerry Guardo and Joel Garganera to take their places. Councilor David Tumulak, who won for the BOPK-Nacionalista Party, aligned himself with the Majority Bloc.

2019-2022 membership

Definition of simple majority

In an omnibus resolution, Majority Floor Leader James Anthony Cuenco and the BARUG Team Rama council members moved to declare all positions in the Council vacant on June 20, 2017. This was in response to the change in affiliation of BARUG Team Rama councilors David Tumulak, Nendell Hanz Abella and Jerry Guardo to BOPK, making it the council's majority bloc. For several weeks, no committee chairs were elected because of disagreements about what constituted a simple majority. The presiding officer, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, met with Councilors Margarita Osmeña and James Anthony Cuenco and they agreed to seek the opinion of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
A July 24, 2017 DILG opinion stated that the City Council presiding officer should not be included in the count determining the council's majority bloc, citing the August 3, 2016 Supreme Court ruling in Tobias Javier vs. Rhodora Cadiao, et al.: "The Vice Governor, as the Presiding Officer, shall be considered a part of the SP for purposes of ascertaining if a quorum exists. In determining the number which constitutes as the majority vote, the Vice Governor is excluded. The Vice Governor's right to vote is merely contingent and arises only when there is a tie to break." The vice governor is the presiding officer of a provincial board, and the vice mayor is the presiding officer of a city council.

Officers

Powers, duties, and functions

The council, as the city's legislative body, is mandated by the Local Government Code of 1991 to enact ordinances; approve resolutions; appropriate funds for the welfare of the city and its inhabitants, and ensure the proper exercise of the city's corporate powers. It has the following duties and functions:
The Cebu City Council has 27 standing committees as of July 14, 2019:

Past councils

2016-2019

Sixty-seven ordinances and over 4,600 resolutions were passed by the 14th council from 2016 to 2019. Eugenio Gabuya, Jr. had the largest number of approved ordinances of the 18 city legislators, and Margarita Osmeña had the largest number of approved resolutions. Sisinio Andales had perfect attendance during the council's 116 regular sessions.
On May 17, 2016, the Department of the Interior and Local Government served a six-month preventive suspension order against Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and 12 councilors for "grave abuse of authority." They allegedly received a ₱20,000 calamity fund, although they had not suffered in Super Typhoon Yolanda and the magnitude 7.2 earthquake which struck Cebu in 2013. Not included in the suspension order were Councilors Margarita Osmeña, Lea Ouano-Japson, Richard Osmeña, James Anthony Cuenco and Philip Zafra. Osmeña temporarily served as acting mayor and Japson as acting vice-mayor until June 30, 2016.
The 12th council conducted its first regular offsite sessions in Barangays Bonbon, Guba and Luz on October 12 and 26, 2011 and August 15, 2012, respectively. The council went paperless on July 20, 2011, with councilors using their laptops for the regular session; this maintained the city's environmentally-friendly stance and saved money.
Notable ordinances passed by the council included City Ordinances No. 2339, which prohibited discrimination in the city on the basis of disability, age, health status, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity or religion; No. 2343, which phased out single-use plastic products in the city and No. 2326, giving the elderly and people with disabilities free parking in malls, hospitals and other establishments.
The 11th council received two Local Legislative Awards in the Highly Urbanized or Independent Component Cities category for the substance of enacted legislation, efficiency of its records staff, completeness of the Agenda, Journals, and Minutes Division and the availability of facilities and amenities in the session hall.
City Ordinance No. 1726, establishing the Cebu City Commission for the Welfare and Protection of Children, was passed by this council.
City Ordinance No. 1656, revising the city's comprehensive zoning regulations, was passed by this council.