The Baguio City Council is currently deliberating on the potential procedural problems caused by House Bill No. 7406 and Republic Act No. 11689, both of which cover the city’s charter.
The discussion came in the heels of the approval of the budget of the City Government of Baguio for Fiscal Year 2025 amounting P3,000,692,000.00 in the form of an ordinance.
The conflict is over the provisions of both HB 7406 and RA 11689, which mandates that the Secretary of the Sangguniang Panlungsod ng Baguio shall “forward to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan copies of duly approved ordinances in the manner provided in Sections 56 and 57 of the Local Government Code of 1991.”
With that provision in place, the council was initially at odds over whether to transmit its ordinance regarding its budget to the provincial council as indicated by the revised Baguio charter.
Councilor Peter Fianza said that under Section 326 of the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991, the budget of a highly urbanized city such as Baguio is supposed to be reviewed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), not the provincial council of Benguet.
The revised city charter has long been a topic of contention within the Baguio council, with many provisions in it criticized by councilors as being “anti-Baguio” or harmful to the city’s operations, such as its provision that requires Benguet provincial oversight over the city’s ordinances, and its provisions covering the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) which manages and owns Camp John Hay, itself another point of contention.
While the city council has initially decided to maintain the status quo regarding the approval of city ordinances and resolutions, a privilege speech on this issue by Fianza is scheduled to be delivered on December 16, 2024.
