DAGUPAN City Vice Mayor Bryan Kua assured the public that he will seek a court injunction on the amended Internal Rules of Procedures (IRP) of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) that significantly diminishes his office’s powers within the city council.

Voting along party lines, the said amendment was passed with seven ayes and five nayes.

Kua lambasted this move by the council’s majority caucus which he claimed ‘clips the powers of the Office of the Vice Mayor as the presiding officer in council sessions,’ contrary to what is supposedly provided for in the Local Government Code.

He said he is currently in consultation with his legal counsel to prepare a case for declaratory relief with prohibitory injunction to be filed before a court.

“Since the amended IRP, read by Councilors Alfie Fernandez and Redford Erfe-Mejia during the October 17 session of the SP has penal clauses, it should come in the form of an ordinance, not a resolution,” the vice mayor added.

According to Section 445, Section a, Clause 1 of RA 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991, the Vice Mayor is to exercise executive and administrative powers in the city council.

Further, he cited existing jurisprudence asserting that IRPs are to follow existing laws and not the other way around.

The Supreme Court, in a 1986 ruling on the case of Romulo vs Yñiguez, said that “Internal Rules do not have the force of law but are merely in the nature of by-laws prescribed for the orderly and convenient conduct of proceedings. They are merely procedural and not substantive. They may be waived or disregarded by the deliberative body…”

Meanwhile, City Secretary Ryan Ravanzo told The PUNCH on Thursday (October 19), that the majority councilors in the city council have not submitted the final copy of the amended house rules to the council secretariat. (Leonardo Micua)

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