An ordinance granting emergency authority to the Bacolod City Mayor Evelio “Bing” Leonardia during the COVID-19 Pandemic was approved last Tuesday, August 25, 2020 during the City Council’s regular session on its third and final reading.

According to the author, Councillor Novero, movement of the people have been one major factor in the spread of COVID-19 among hundreds of Bacolod residents, with its escalating numbers needing to be addressed by an alarming level of urgency.

Furthermore, he stated that a group of physicians had addressed their urgent concern regarding the dwindling amount of healthworkers in the city due to the epidemic, and have pleaded for modified enhanced community quarantine to contain the spread of COVID-19, restrain people’s movement, and give healthcare workers a break.

Section 5 of the ordinance states that the mayor is hereby granted emergency authority and no matter of the quarantine status, may issue executive legislation that include:

  1. Restriction or limitation of movements in specified places of the City
  2. Closing of borders and establishing checkpoints
  3. Imposition of Home Quarantine Passes (HQPs) and issuance of HQPs
  4. Regulation of Curfew Hours
  5. Closure of buildings/offices of business establishments with infected employees
  6. Regulation of public and private transport within and into the city
  7. Conducting massive RT-PCR swab tests in the city
  8. Other measures called for by the emergency situation

“Overstretching the constitution”

“The Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) is a separate branch and the power for “check and balance” it holds is sacred and for it to surrender and that power would only demean us as an institution. It seems we are saying, ‘Si Mayor na lang da’. (Only the mayor will decide) Let the SP be part of the solution by creating policies and strategies. SP should be pro-active, prospective and aggressive in crafting legislations to combat this Covid 19 pandemic. This is what we are supposed to do and this is what we should be doing. Legislations are important and helpful in securing our community and the City from Covid-19 local transmission. It seems that the SP has no stake in the solution except to grant the Emergency Authority and have nothing more to do with it.”

Councilor Gamboa’s take on the emergency powers to be granted to the city mayor

Meanwhile, lone opposition councilor, Hon. Wilson Gamboa, Jr. criticized the proposed ordinance granting “Emergency Authority” to the Mayor as “unsettling, disturbing, distressing and absurd”, stating that not only are all necessary powers already mandated under the Local Government Unit Code, but also that the personnel spearheading and strategizing the city’s COVID efforts should be health care practitioners and not the politicians.

According to the councilor, the proposed ordinance is double-edged, ambiguous, and equivocal, considering that it is giving “blanket authority” to the Mayor and evidently short of “strict parameters”,“over-stretching” the Constitution by pushing the Mayor to decide for himself certain policies, advocacies and interpretations all in the name of the COVID-19 pandemic that could go beyond the limits and constitute a violation or a crime.

Gamboa also emphasized that the government should uphold human rights and continue their “ayuda” or financial aid program should the people be forced to halt their source of livelihood throughout the 4-day lockdown period.

The Mayor’s Emergency Authority provided in Section 5 of the proposed ordinance, except for mass testing in one sub-section, are mostly about restrictions, limitations, curtailment and stoppage of movement which are not the “direct solution to stop transmission” according to Gamboa, is not recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The opposition councilor reiterated that the Sanguniang Panlungsod be part of the strategic solution by separately creating this Emergency Committee led by health care experts and practitioner, and other related professions to and not just government officials who are not trained to handle health issues and problems.

As WHO and global experts have already assessed based on experience of the other countries, these are the key factors of their success namely; 1. Strong leadership, 2. Strong public health system,3. community education and 4.personal risk management of all citizens.

“We might be looking and focusing on ‘strategies’ which are not the solutions but just merely ‘palliatives’ to the problems. What we need today according to the WHO is a ‘Strong Public Health System’. Summon all the experts in the City to create a targeted strategy to: 1. Detect 2. Test 3. Isolate 4. Treat 5. Trace, targeting the most vulnerable especially our elderly/senior citizens and children but not the curtailment of human movement and in fact, according to WHO ‘to allow movement with the observance of proper health protocols.”

Councilor Gamboa on the ideal strategy in tackling the COVID-19 Pandemic