Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is local legislation?

Local legislation can be understood in two ways: as power and as a process.

Local Legislation as power - Local legislation refers to the power of a local

legislative body to make rules in the form of ordinances and resolutions of local
application that have the force and effect of law.

Local Legislation as a process - Local legislation is the interaction of the local

legislative body with the executive branch, civil society including constituents,
nongovernmental organizations and the private sector resulting in ordinances and
resolutions that promote the development of a local government unit (LGU). The
products or outputs of this interaction are ordinances and resolutions.

2. Why is local legislation important?

Local legislation is important because it is a powerful, vital tool for:

addressing the problems of the citizens of the LGU

promoting the general welfare and development of the LGU and its citizens

attaining the vision of the LGU for its citizens

3. Who makes local legislation?

Local legislation is a participatory process. It acquires legitimacy and social

acceptability though the involvement of stakeholders in the LGU. In this context,
stakeholders are groups, organizations and individuals who have a stake in or
whose interests will be affected by the process of making laws or policies. Local
legislation is made by key stakeholders in the LGU:

the sanggunian or local legislative body

the local chief executive, including local government executives

the constituents
 the civil society organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and peoples
organizations

the private sector and other interest groups

Legislative authority at the local level is vested in the sanggunian or the local
legislative body. The sanggunian is a collegial body, composed of a group of
individuals elected to represent the peoples interests. It has the power to enact
ordinances, approve resolutions, and appropriate funds for the welfare of the LGU
and its inhabitants.

The 1991 Local GovernmentGovernment Code vests legislative power to the

sanggunian at different levels of local government:

Sangguniang Panlawigan for provinces

Sangguniang Bayan for municipalities

Sangguniang Panlungsod for cities

Sangguniang Barangay for barangays

In the autonomous regions of the country, legislation is made by the regional

legislative assemblies, e.g. Regional Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao.

4. What is effective local legislation?

Effective local legislation is a collective and participatory process. It refers to the

interaction of the sanggunian or local legislative body with the executive
branch and civil society resulting in legislative actions that promote the
development objectives of the LGU.

Civil society includes the private sector, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),

peoples organizations (POs), civil society organizations (CSOs), and constituents.
The participation of these individuals and groups is essential to ensure the
legitimacy and social acceptability of ordinances and resolutions enacted.

To be effective, local legislation requires three elements:

A. Institutional efficiency
The sanggunian is a public institution. Like any other organization, it must have
efficient structures and systems. It must have people who can do their jobs well
because they know their roles and functions. An efficient legislative organization
must have the following:

organizational structure

rules of procedure

legislative leadership

legislative committees

legislative support system, and

mechanism for legislative-executive coordination

The presence of adequate and functioning structures and systems make the
legislation process or cycle efficient and open to participation from stakeholders
outside the legislative organization. For instance, ordinances cannot be enacted
without rules of procedure; or thesubstance of draft ordinances cannot be enhanced
by NGOs without sanggunian committees to get their views and perspectives.

As an institution tasked to carry out a public mandate, the sanggunian must have a
clear understanding of the vision and mission of the LGU unit to which it belongs.
As well, its work must be guided by a clear process that defines the role of
different stakeholders in each stage or phase.

B. Local legislation cycle or process

Legislative Agenda Formulation

Crafting of Ordinances and Resolutions

Enactment of Ordinances and Codes of Ordinances

Evaluation of the Implementation of Ordinances

At each phase, various stakeholders in the LGU interact with the sanggunian to
ensure that measures produced address the development objectives of the LGU.
C. Development

Development is a goal and an end of local legislation. Development is the

sustained capacity to achieve a better life. For a nation or community, having a
better life means that citizens have a higher life expectancy and enjoy a higher
quality of life regardless of age, sex, gender, religion or ethnicity. Quality of life
involves: a) the capacity to do, and b) the capacity to be. Underlying these
capacities is the freedom of choice. Hence, development is also about expanding
the range of choices of people.

Local legislation is considered an effective tool for good governance and results in
ordinances and resolutions that enable citizens to achieve a better life or
development. Local legislation is effective if it contributes to the attainment of the
communitys shared vision and results in poverty reduction, gender equality,
environmental protection, peace and unity, accountability and transparency of local
officials, and active participation of citizens in social, economic and political
transformation.

5. What is a legislator?

A local legislator or sanggunian member is generally understood to be:

a lawmaker or a person who makes laws, and

a member of a local legislative body with the power to make laws.

However, the local legislator is more than a lawmaker. He or she wears many
hats or in other words is expected to perform a variety of roles in the community
as a leader, overseer, facilitator and institution builder, among others.

6. What does it really mean to make laws?

The power to make laws or legislative power means three things: political power,
police power and taxing power.

Political power is the power to enact laws providing for the establishment,
organization and operation of the local government.

Police power is the essence of what government does; it is the power to

enact laws to promote peace, health, safety and welfare.
 Taxing power is the duty to levy and collect taxes to raise revenue to pay
for government operations, including salaries of local government officials
and personnel.

7. What are Internal Rules of Procedure?

Order is essential to the successful conduct of business of deliberative bodies. For

the sanggunian, order can be achieved by implementing a set of rules agreed upon
by all members, known as the Internal Rules of Procedure. These rules allow for
the orderly conduct of deliberations as well as formulation and approval of
decisions. These rules enable sanggunian members to articulate their thoughts,
reconcile conflicts and differences, determine the will of the majority, and take
action.

Internal Rules of Procedures (IRP)

A document containing a set of procedural rules that governs the orderly

transaction of business and defining the duties and responsibilities of the
officers during the conduct of meetings.

Must be adopted by the sanggunian in the first regular session following the
election of the members of the sanggunian and within 90 days thereafter.

There are five principles to consider in the implementation of the IRP. These are:

1. courtesy and justice to all

2. consider one topic at a time

3. the majority rules

4. the minority has a right to be heard

5. fairness to all and partiality to no one

An important element of the IRP is parliamentary procedure or the manner of

conducting business in a deliberative body. It ensures orderly discussion and
decision-making in the sanggunian through the use of motion. A motion refers to a
proposal of a member of the sanggunian for consideration of the body. To
understand the types of motions and how to use them, the sanggunian may use as
reference Reverendo Dihans Handbook on Local Legislation (1998).
8. What is a Legislative Agenda?

A key indicator of effective local legislation is the capacity of local legislators to

analyze the problems and concerns of the community, aggregate these, and focus
efforts to address them in the context of available resources of the community
towards local development. This is essentially what formulating a legislative
agenda is about.

A legislative agenda (LA):

is a package of priority legislative measures designed to support local

development priorities, particularly those defined in the executive-legislative
agenda (ELA).

serves as the road map to guide the sanggunian in identifying, analyzing

and formulating solutions to problems and issues requiring public policy
action.

is a list of prioritized ordinances and resolutions for enactment during a

specified period, usually three years, contributing to the attainment of the
LGU vision and mission.

The LA is a tool for fulfilling the sanggunian members mandate as elected

representatives of the people and is useful for:

organizing and prioritizing the work of the sanggunian

ensuring convergence of the LA and ELA

setting clear performance targets of the sanggunian

educating the people on the work of the sanggunian

assessing the performance of the sanggunian

9. What is the difference between an ordinance and a resolution?

An ordinance is a local law that prescribes rules of conduct of a general,

permanent character. It continues to be in force until repealed or superseded by a
subsequent enactment of the local legislative body.
A resolution is a mere expression of the opinion or sentiment of the local
legislative body on matters relating to proprietary function and to private concerns.
It is temporary in character.

10. What are Committees?

To get work done in an efficient and timely manner, the sanggunian must organize
itself into work groups or committees.

Legislative Committee is a group tasked by the body or assembly to

consider, or investigate, or take action in regard to, certain matters or
subjects of public interest.

Standing or Permanent Committees are tasked or assigned a continuing

function and usually remain standing or existing co-terminus with the life
of the body that created them. These committees are created for the purpose
of:

1. ordinance or resolution sponsorship

2. undertaking public hearings on proposed measures in aid of

legislation

3. legislative review and referrals

Special or Ad-hoc Committees are created to perform an ad-hoc or specific

task that does not fall within the jurisdiction of a standing committee. They
cease to exist upon completion of its assigned task.

11. What is Codification?

Codification is the process of collecting, classifying and supplementing the

ordinances of a local government unit. It is a complete and systematic process in
the sense that the end product is a new enactment a code.

This code when finally adopted by the sanggunian embodies all the ordinances,
past and present, and future of the local government unit and is therefore the
repository of the body of rules and regulations which lay down policies and
institute guidelines for proper enforcement of these rules.

12. What are the steps in codification?

 Compilation - The gathering and collating of all existing ordinances of a
province city/municipality. The files in the secretarys and
governors/mayors offices should be the best source of these ordinances.
Other possible sources of ordinances which are kept on file are in the offices
of the treasurer, the fiscal, health office, and the provincial sanggunian in the
case of cities or municipalities.

Listing - A listing of ordinances follows the compilation. This listing will

inform the codifier and his staff what ordinances are (1) missing (2)
amended (3) repealed or (4) obsolete. It is important that all ordinances of
the province, municipality or city should be accounted for in the process of
the listing.

Classifying - Classification is the process by which the ordinances are

categorized according to the subjects treated in the ordinance. This is the
first step toward grouping ordinances under the same or similar subjects for
eventual assignment to specific chapters in the code.

Revision The provision of the ordinance should be reviewed for

deficiencies, languages and applicability with the end in view of making the
language of the provisions to be included in the proposed code to be as
simple, clear and accurate as possible. Revision is the re-examination of the
provisions of an ordinance and to restate the provisions in a correct and
improved form. It includes the weeding out of obsolete or inactive
provisions in the existing ordinance.

Supplementation Supplementation takes place after the code has been

finally drafted and enacted by the sanggunian. Supplementation of the code
is made through ordinances of the sanggunian intended to supply a
deficiency in an existing provision, or add, amend or modify such provision.

13. Why do we need to codify?

There are many compelling reasons to codify, some of which are:

Fulfill a community obligation. It is the duty of every province, city,

municipality or even barangay to maintain its laws in a comprehensive, up-
to-date and understandable form in a location that the average citizen can
find and use.
 Avoid confusion and ensure accurate interpretation.By compiling our
basic ordinances and all amendments into one up-to-date document, we
eliminate the need to refer to many separate documents. The most current
information will be easily accessible.

Eliminate hours of frustrating research. A Code is a single reliable

resource for our elected and appointed officials, enabling them to respond
accurately to questions and provide certified copies quickly and efficiently.

Support enforcement. A Code is a practical and efficient tool for our courts,
police authorities and other enforcement officials, enabling them to enforce
our laws with confidence and consistency.

Plan for the future. A Code provides a clear view of existing situations and
makes it easier to determine the impact of proposed changes and
amendments.

14. What are some examples of a codification?

The first civilization to codify its laws was ancient Babylon. The first real set of
codified laws, the Code of Hammurabi, was compiled circa 1760 BC by the
Babylonian king Hammurabi, and is the earliest known civil code.

Besides religious laws such as the Torah, important codifications were developed
in the ancient Roman Empire, with the compilations of the Lex Duodecim
Tabularum and much later the Corpus Iuris Civilis. These codified laws were the
exceptions rather than the rule, however, as during much of the ancient Roman
laws were left mostly uncodified.

The first permanent system of codified laws could be found in China, with the
compilation of the Tang Code in CE 624. This formed the basis of the Chinese
criminal code, which was then replaced by the Great Qing Legal Code, which was
in turn abolished in 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution and the establishment of
the Republic of China. The new laws of the Republic of China were inspired by the
German codified work, the Brgerliches Gesetzbuch.[1] A very influential example
in Europe was the French Napoleonic code of 1804.

Another early system of laws is Hindu law framed by Manu and called as Manu
Smriti. The use of civil codes in Islamic Sharia law began with the Ottoman
Empire.1
In our modern times, almost all existing governments have their own codifications
or set of laws codified such as: Civil Code, Labor Code, Administrative Code,
Revenue, Environmental Code, etc.