The House committee on Metro Manila Development chaired by Rep. Winston Castelo (2nd District, Quezon City) approved a draft substitute bill which seeks to harmonize the rules that will govern the entire Metro Manila to improve the effectiveness of delivering services to the public.
The unnumbered substitute bill seeks to enhance the effectiveness of the Metropolitan Manila Council in formulating policies, regulations, rules and laws for Metro Manila, amending for the purpose Republic Act (RA) No. 7924, entitled “An Act Creating The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Defining Its Powers And Functions, Providing Funds Therefor And For Other Purposes”.
The Metro Manila Council is the governing board and policy making body of the MMDA and is composed of the mayors of the cities and municipalities.
The bill seeks to amend Section 1 of to RA 7924 titled Declaration of Policy so that it is declared the policy of the State to treat Metropolitan Manila, composed of the cities of Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Manila, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon, San Juan, Taguig and Valenzuela and the Municipality of Pateros, as a special development and administrative region under the direct supervision of the President of the Philippines.
Towards this end, certain basic services affecting Metro Manila as metro-wide services must be efficiently and effectively planned, supervised and coordinated by a development authority to address the metro-wise problems of garbage, floods, air pollution, scarce sanitized water, traffic, and informal settlements brought about by the increasing population of the area, without prejudice to the autonomy of the affected local government units.
Pursuant to this policy, the MMDA shall formulate rules and regulations and enact ordinances aimed to address the metro-wide problems though augmenting and harmonizing conflicting policies between and among the localities of Metropolitan Manila.
The bill also seeks to amend Section 5 of RA 7924 titled Functions and Powers of the Metro Manila Development Authority, so that the MMDA shall also undertake and manage on its own metro-wide programs and projects for the delivery of specific services under its jurisdiction, adopt and implement ordinances and other regulations that fall within its mandate, upon the concurrence or approval of the Council.
For this purpose, the MMDA can create appropriate management or implementing offices.
The MMDA shall also perform other related functions required to achieve its objectives, including the undertaking of delivery of basic services to the local government units, when deemed necessary subject to prior coordination with and consent of the local government unit concerned or as may be mandated by any ordinance approved by the majority of the Sanggunian of the Cities and Municipality of Metro Manila.
The bills add a new Section 6-A to RA 7924 titled Metro Manila Council Ordinance which provides the duly approved and ratified ordinance issued by the Metro Manila Council is binding to all cities and municipality of Metro Manila and shall have the full force and effect of a law in Metro Manila. The MMDA is the lead agency to implement any ordinance and is assisted by the local government units or other enforcement agencies that may be provided therein.
Furthermore, the new section provides the approval and ratification of an ordinance are done strictly in the following manner, otherwise, the ordinance is void:
(A) Any member of the Metro Manila Council, or the Sanggunian of any city or municipality, may propose to the Metro Manila Council any relevant matter that falls within the mandate of the MMDA which necessitates an ordinance to address or resolve;
(B) The members of the Metro Manila Council shall coordinate and consult with their respective local government units and offices and the public to determine that the matter presented to the Metro Manila Council is relevant and of metro-wide application and present the result of the consultation to the Metro Manila Council, which may opt to form a technical working group as it deems necessary on issues arising from the consultations;
(C) After due and diligent consultations and deliberations, the Metro Manila Council shall vote on the proposal and approve it by the majority vote of its voting members;
(D) If the vote is in favor of the proposal, the Metro Manila Council shall present it to the Sanggunian of each city/municipality government unit for its approval or disapproval. If the vote is not favorable, the Metro Manila Council shall archive it for future reference;
(E) After the receipt of the proposal, the Sanggunian shall either approve or disapprove the proposed ordinance in toto without any amendment;
(F) Within thirty (30) working days from the receipt of the proposal, the Sanggunian shall submit to the Metro Manila Council its resolution expressing the approval or disapproval on the proposed ordinance;
(G) The failure of the Sanggunian to submit its resolution within the required period is considered as an approval of the concerned Sanggunian;
(H) The Metro Manila Council shall determine if the proposed ordinance is approved by the majority of the Sanggunian units;
(I) If the proposed ordinance is approved, the Metro Manila Council shall ratify the approved ordinance by the majority vote of all its voting members. If the proposed ordinance is disapproved, the Metro Manila Council shall determine and settle the issues concerning its disapproval;
(J) Within seven days from the ratification of the ordinance, the Metro Manila Council shall post the ordinance in the bulletin boards and any conspicuous places in the MMDA offices and city or municipal halls in Metro Manila as well as in their websites or official electronic pages. If the ordinance carries penal sanctions, it must be published in two (2) newspapers of general circulation;
(K) The duly approved and ratified ordinance shall take effect 15 days after its posting or publication. However, this period may be shortened in exceptional/emergency cases necessitating earlier implementation;
The bill substitutes House Bill Nos. 4642 and 5057 authored by Castelo and Rep. Bayani Fernando (1st District, Marikina City), respectively.
Other authors of the bill are Reps. Dale Malapitan, Edgar Erice, former Rep. Mark Villar, Reps. Manuel Monsour Del Rosario III, Luis Jose Angel Campos, Jr., Federico Sandoval II, Alexandria Gonzales, Manuel Luis Lopez, Carlo Lopez, John Marvin Nieto, Edward Vera Perez Maceda, Cristal Bagatsing, Rosenda Ann Ocampo, Romero Quimbo, Rozzano Rufino Biazon, Tobias Tiangco, Eric Olivarez, Gus Tambunting, Emi Calixto-Rubiano, Richard Eusebio, Vincent Crisologo, Jorge Banal, Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., Alfred Vargas, Jose Christopher Belmonte, Ronaldo Zamora, Arnel Cerafica, Pia Cayetano, Wes Gatchalian and Eric Martinez.