REPUBLIC ACT No. 168
An Act to Amend Certain Sections of Commonwealth Act Numbered One Hundred and Fifty-Eight, as Amended, Otherwise Known as the Charter of the City of Iloilo
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress Assembled:
Section 1. Section fourteen of Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred and fifty-eight, as amended by Commonwealth Act Numbered Six hundred four, is further amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 14. Constitution and organization of the Municipal Board. - The Municipal Board shall be the legislative body of the city and shall consist of the City Mayor and ten councilors, five of them to be appointed by the President of the Philippines, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, and the other five to be elected by popular vote. The City Mayor shall act as Chairman of the Board. Until the next general elections, the positions of the five elective councilors shall be filled in the same manner as those of the appointive councilors. The Chairman of the Board shall preside over all sessions thereof to vote on all matters submitted to the Board. In his absence, the members present shall elect one to preside at the sessions of the Board as temporary chairman. The Chairman of the Board shall sign all ordinances and resolutions and motions directing the payment of money or creating liability. In case of sickness or absence of any member of the Board, or if it becomes necessary to maintain a quorum, the President of the Philippines shall appoint a temporary substitute who shall hold office, possess all the rights, receive the emoluments and discharge all the duties in connection therewith until the return to duty of the sick or absent member.
"The President of the Philippines, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, shall fill for the rest of the term all the permanent vacancies taking place in the Municipal Board.
"The City Mayor shall discharge his duties in the Board without additional compensation. The other members shall each receive a per diem of ten pesos for each day of attendance at the session of the Board."
Section 2. Section seventeen of the same Act is amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 17. Appropriations by the Board. - The Board shall make all appropriations for the expenses of the government of the city. Whenever the Board fails to pass an appropriation ordinance for any year before the end of the previous year, the appropriation ordinance for such previous year shall be deemed reenacted and shall go into effect on the first day of January of the current year, as the appropriation ordinance for that year, until a new appropriation ordinance is duly enacted.
"The Municipal Board shall obtain the written opinion of the city treasurer on any matter involving the levying or collection of taxes or expenditure of funds, but the opinion so obtained shall have no weight beyond that of a recommendation; and the Municipal Board shall have full authority to decide the matter in such manner as it may deem just and advisable for the interests of the city, the provisions of paragraph (i) of section twenty-seven hereof notwithstanding."
Section 3. Section eighteen of the same Act as amended by Commonwealth Act Numbered Six hundred and four is further amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 18. Method of transacting business by the Board—Veto, authentication and publication of ordinances.— Unless the Secretary of the Interior orders otherwise, the Board shall hold two ordinary sessions every week for the transaction of business on days which it shall fix by resolution, and such special sessions not exceeding ten during any one year as may be called by the Mayor, except the sessions provided in section thirty-seven of this Chapter. It shall sit with open doors unless otherwise ordered by the affirmative vote of five members. It shall keep a record of its proceedings and determine its rules of procedure not herein set forth. Six members of the Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business and six affirmative votes shall be necessary for the passage of any ordinance, resolution or motion. The ayes and nays shall be taken and recorded upon the passage of all ordinances, upon all resolutions or motions directing the payment of money or creating liability, and at the request of any member, upon any other resolution or motion. Each ordinance enacted by the Board and each resolution or motion directing the payment of money or creating liability shall be forwarded to the Mayor for his approval. Within ten days after the receipt of the ordinance, resolution or motion, the Mayor shall return it with his approval or veto. If he does not return it within that time, it shall be deemed to be approved. If he returns it with his veto, his reasons therefor in writing shall accompany it. It may then be again enacted by the affirmative votes of seven members of the Board. The Mayor shall have the power to veto any particular item or items of an appropriation ordinance or of an ordinance, resolution or motion directing the payment of money or creating liability, but the veto shall not affect the item or items to which he did not object. The item or items objected to shall not take effect except in the manner heretofore provided in this section as to ordinances, resolutions or motions returned to the Board with his veto. Each approved ordinance, and each resolution or motion directing the payment of money or creating liability which may be passed shall be sealed with the city seal, signed by the Chairman of the Board and the Secretary, recorded in a book kept for that purpose, published within ten days after its approval and if no date is fixed in the same, it shall take effect and be in force on the twentieth day following its publication."
Section 4. Sections twenty-three and fifty-eight of the same Act as amended by Commonwealth Act Numbered Five hundred and sixty-eight, and the first two paragraphs of section fifty-six of the same Act, are further amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 23. City Departments. - There shall be the following city departments over which the Mayor shall have general supervisory control.
"1. Department of Finance and Assessment
"2. Department of Engineering and Public Works
"3. Legal Department
"4. Police and Fire Department
"The Board may from time to time make such readjustments of the duties of the several departments as the public interest may demand.
"The chiefs of departments shall receive the following annual salaries: five thousand one hundred pesos for the city treasurer and assessor, and an amount not in excess of the salary paid to ex-officio assessor of a province in the same category, as ex-officio city assessor; four thousand eight hundred pesos for the city engineer; four thousand pesos for each of the municipal judges; four thousand eight hundred pesos for the city fiscal; and four thousand eight hundred pesos for the chief of police and fire department.
"The city fiscal shall have two assistants who shall receive compensation in accordance with the following scale: (a) The first assistant city fiscal shall receive three thousand six hundred pesos per annum; and (b) the second assistant city fiscal shall receive three thousand pesos per annum. The city fiscal and his assistants shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments."
"Sec. 56. Municipal Court— Its jurisdiction. - There shall be a Municipal Court for the City of Iloilo for which there shall be appointed two municipal judges who shall receive a salary of four thousand pesos each. The municipal judges shall have as a general rule the same powers and duties as justices of the peace, including authority to solemnize marriages. They shall be entitled to thirty days’ vacation with pay each year.
"In case of absence, incapacity or disqualification both of the municipal judges the judge of the Court of First Instance of the district shall assign the justice of the peace of any of the adjacent municipalities to preside the Municipal Court, and the same shall act temporarily until such absence, incapacity or disqualification shall ease or until another municipal judge shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments.
"Sec. 58. Clerk and employees of Municipal Court— Sheriff and Deputy Sheriffs. - There shall be a clerk of the municipal court who shall be appointed by the Secretary of Justice and shall receive a yearly salary of three thousand pesos. The clerk shall at the same time be sheriff of the city and shall as such have the same powers and duties as assigned by existing law to provincial sheriffs: Provided, However, That the newspaper or newspapers in which notices of sales at auction of real property or other notices are to be published shall be designated by the interested party. There shall be one deputy clerk of the municipal court, three deputy sheriffs and other clerks of the municipal court who shall be appointed by the municipal judge and whose salaries shall be fixed by the Municipal Board.
"The clerk of the Municipal Board shall keep its seal and affix it to all orders, judgments, certificates, records, and other documents issued by the court. He shall keep a docket of the trials in the court, in which he shall record in any summary manner the names of the parties and the various proceedings in civil cases, and in criminal cases, the name of the defendant, the charge against him, the names of the witnesses, the date of the arrest, the appearance of the defendant, the date of the trial, and the nature of the judgment, together with the fines and costs adjudged or collected in accordance with the judgment. He shall have power to administer oaths."
Section 5. This Act shall take effect on July first, nineteen hundred and forty-seven.
Approved: June 20, 1947.
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