Section
1.
This Act shall be known as the Charter of the City
of Cadiz.
ARTICLE I
The City as a Public Corporation
Sec. 2. Territory of the City of Cadiz. – The
City of Cadiz, which is hereby created, shall comprise the present
territorial jurisdiction of the Municipality of Cadiz in the Province
of Negros Occidental.
Sec. 3. Corporate character. – The City of Cadiz
constitutes a political body corporate and as such is endowed with the
attribute of perpetual succession and possessed of the powers which
pertain to a municipal corporation, to be exercised in conformity with
the provisions of this Charter.
Sec. 4. Seal and general powers of the City. –
The City shall have a seal, which shall be used in all documents of
official character, and alter the same at pleasure. It may acquire,
receive, hold, barter, donate, lease, convey, and dispose of real and
personal property for the general interests of the city, condemn
private property for public use, contract and be contracted with, sue
and be sued, prosecute and defend to final judgment and execution and
exercise all the powers hereinafter conferred.
Sec. 5. Liability for damages. – The City shall
not be liable or held for damages or injuries to persons or property
arising from the failure of the Mayor, the Municipal Board, or any
other city officer, to enforce the provisions of this Charter, or any
other law or ordinance, or from negligence of said Mayor, Municipal
Board, or other officers while enforcing or attempting to enforce said
provisions.
Sec. 6. Jurisdiction of the City. – The
jurisdiction of the City of Cadiz for police purposes shall be
co-extensive with its territorial jurisdiction, and for the purpose of
protecting and insuring the purity of the water supply of the city,
such police jurisdiction shall also extend over all territory within
one hundred meters of any reservoir, conduit, canal, aqueduct or
pumping station used in connection with the city water service.
Sec. 7. Relations between the City of Cadiz and
the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental. – For election
purposes, the City of Cadiz unless otherwise provided shall continue as
part of the First Congressional District of the Province of Negros
Occidental. The voters of the City of Cadiz shall take part in the
election of provincial officers of Negros Occidental, but the latter
shall have no jurisdiction over the City of Cadiz and the officers of
the same.
ARTICLE II
The Mayor
Sec. 8. The Mayor. – The Mayor shall be elected
by the qualified electors of the city. He shall be at least thirty
years of age, a resident of the city at least five years prior to his
election, and a qualified voter therein: provided, that the first
election for mayor shall be held at the general elections for
provincial and municipal officials next following the approval of this
Act. He shall hold office for four years, unless sooner removed for
just cause and with due process of law, and shall receive a salary of
not exceeding fifteen thousand pesos per annum. The Municipal Board
may, in its discretion, provide quarters for the mayor or commute the
same in addition to his salary.
The Mayor shall be the chief executive of the city, and, as such, shall
have immediate control over the executive functions of the different
departments.
The Mayor may receive, in addition to his salary, an allowance to be
fixed by the Municipal Board, which he may disburse for any lawful
purpose incident to his duties as Mayor.
Sec. 9. The Vice Mayor. – There shall be a
Vice-Mayor, who shall perform the duties of Mayor in the event of the
sickness, absence or other temporary incapacity of the Mayor, or in the
event of definite vacancy in the position of Mayor, until said office
is filled in accordance with law. The Vice-Mayor shall also preside
over the meeting of the Municipal Board, but he shall have no right to
vote except in case of tie. If, for any person, the Vice-mayor is
temporarily incapacitated for the performance of the duties of the
mayor, or said office of the Vice-Mayor is vacant, the duties of the
mayor shall be performed by a councilor who obtained the highest number
of votes in the last election. If, in any event, the Vice-Mayor is
discharging the duties of the Mayor, the councilor obtaining the
highest number of votes in the last election shall be the presiding
officer of the Municipal Board.
The Vice-Mayor shall perform such other duties as may be assigned to
him by the mayor or prescribed by law or ordinance. He shall be elected
in the same manner as the mayor and shall at the time of his election
possess the same qualifications as the mayor. For services as acting
Mayor the Vice-Mayor shall receive a compensation equivalent to the
salary of the mayor during such period.
SECTION 10. General powers and duties of the Mayor.
– As chief executive of the city government, the mayor shall have
immediate control over the executive and administrative functions of
the different departments, and shall be held accountable for the proper
administration of all affairs of the city.
He shall have the following powers and duties:
(a) To comply with and enforce and give necessary
order for the faithful and proper enforcement and execution of the laws
and city ordinances and resolutions in effect within the jurisdiction
of the city.
(b) To have direct control and supervision over all
the lands, buildings, records, moneys, credits, and other property and
right of the city, and subject to the provisions of this Charter, have
control of all its property.
(c) To see that all taxes and other revenues of the
city are collected, and the city funds applied in accordance with
appropriations to the payment of municipal expenses.
(d) To cause to be instituted judicial proceedings
to recover property and funds of the city wherever found, to cause to
be defended all suits against the city, and otherwise to protect the
interests of the city.
(e) To see that the officers and employees of the
city properly discharge their respective duties.
(f) To examine and inspect the books, records, and
papers of all executive or administrative officers, agents, and
employees of the city whenever occasion arises, and at least once a
year. For this purpose he shall be provided by the Municipal Board with
such clerical or other assistance as may be necessary.
(g) To give such information and recommend such
measures to the Board as he shall deem advantageous to the city.
(h) To represent the city in all its business
matters, and sign of its behalf all its bonds, contracts, and
obligations made in accordance with law or ordinances.
(i) To submit to the Municipal Board before the
thirty- first day of October of each year a budget of receipts and
expenditures of the city.
(j) To receive, hear, and decide as he may deem
proper the petitions, complaints, and claims concerning all classes of
municipal matters of an administrative or executive character.
(k) To grant or refuse municipal licenses or permits
of all classes and to revoke same, in conformity with the provisions of
laws and ordinances, or for violation of the conditions upon which they
were granted, or if acts prohibited by law or municipal ordinances are
being committed under the protection of such licenses or in the
premises in which the business for which the same have been granted is
carried on, or for any other good reason of general interest.
(l) To determine according to law or ordinance the
time, manner, and place of payment of the salaries and wages of the
officers and employees of the city.
(m) To make all appointments, except as otherwise
provided in this Charter.
(n) To make such emergency measures as may be
necessary to avoid fires, floods, and to mitigate the effects of storms
and other public calamities.
(o) To render an annual report to the Office of the
President.
(p) To exercise the power of veto, but any vetoed
ordinance or resolution may be repassed by two-thirds vote of all the
members of the Board.
(q) To perform such other duties and exercise such
executive powers as may be prescribed by law or ordinance.
(r) Subject to the provisions of the Civil Service
Law, to appoint all officers and employees of the City of Cadiz.
SECTION 11. Secretary to the Mayor. – The Mayor
shall appoint one secretary who shall hold office at the pleasure of
the mayor and who shall receive a compensation of not exceeding six
thousand six hundred pesos per annum and one assistant secretary with
an annual compensation of not exceeding four thousand eight hundred
pesos who shall perform the duties of the secretary when absent and
such other duties assigned to him by the secretary.
The Secretary shall have charge and custody of all records and
documents of the city and of any office or department thereof for which
provision is not otherwise made; shall keep the corporate seal and
affix the same with his signature to all ordinances and resolutions
signed by the mayor and all other official documents and papers of the
government of the city as may be required by custom, in the discretion
of the mayor; shall attest all executive orders, proclamations,
ordinances and resolutions signed by the mayor and shall perform such
other duties as the mayor may require of him; shall, on demand, furnish
certified copies of all city records and documents in his charge which
are not of a confidential character, and collect and receive such fees
as may be prescribed by resolution of the Board. He shall also perform
such duties as are required of the heads of departments of the city
government, by Section twenty, and for the purposes of said section,
the secretary will be considered the head of a department. The position
of the secretary shall be regarded as within the unclassified civil
service. The appointee shall be entitled to all the benefits and
privileges of classified employees.
ARTICLE III
The Municipal Board
SECTION 12. Organization. – The Municipal Board
shall be the legislative body of the city, and shall consist of the
vice-mayor, as the presiding officer, and eight councilors elected by
popular vote. The vice-mayor shall have no right to vote except in case
of a tie. The presiding officer shall sign all ordinances, and all
resolutions and motions directing the payment of money or creating
liability, enacted or adopted by the Board. In case of sickness of any
member of the Board, or if, for any reason it becomes necessary to
maintain a quorum, the President of the Philippines may make a
temporary appointment until the return to duty of the sick or absent
member. During the period of such temporary appointment, the person
receiving the same shall possess all the rights and perform all the
duties of a member of the Board. The members of the Board shall receive
a salary of not exceeding six thousand six hundred pesos per annum and
the Vice-Mayor shall receive a salary of not exceeding seven thousand
eight hundred pesos per annum.
SECTION 13. Election, suspension and removal of
members. – The members of the Municipal Board shall be elected at large
and each of them at the time of election shall be a resident of the
city for at least one year; must be a qualified elector and not less
than twenty-three years of age. Such members may be suspended or
removed from office under the same circumstances, in the same manner,
and with the same effect, as elective provincial officers.
Elections for members of the Board shall be held on the date of the
regular election for provincial and municipal offices, and elected
members shall assume office on the first day of January next following
their election, upon qualifying, and shall hold office until their
successors are elected and qualified.
If any member of the Municipal Board shall be a candidate for office in
any election, he shall be incompetent to act with the Board in the
discharge of the duties herein conferred upon it as to election
matters, and in such case the other members of the board shall
discharge said duties without his assistance, or the municipal board
may choose some disinterested elector of the city to act on the Board
in such matters in his stead.
SECTION 14. Secretary of the Board. – The Board
shall have a secretary, who shall be appointed by the mayor to serve
during the term of the appointing power. A vacancy in the office of the
secretary shall be filled temporarily or for the unexpired term in like
manner. The secretary shall be in charge of the record of the
proceedings of the Board, and file all documents relating thereto;
shall record, in a book kept for that purpose, all ordinances, and all
resolutions and motions directing the payment of money or creating
liability, enacted or adopted by the Board, with the dates of passage
of the same, and of the publication of ordinances; shall keep a seal,
circular in form, with the inscription "Municipal Board – City of
Cadiz", in the center of which shall be placed the arms of the city,
and affix the same, with his signature to all ordinances and other
official acts of the Board, and shall present the same for signature to
the presiding officer of the Board; shall cause each ordinance passed
to be published as herein provided; shall, on demand, furnish certified
copies of all records of public character in his charge under the seal
of his office; and collect and receive therefor such fees as may be
prescribed by resolution of the Board; and shall keep his office and
all records therein which are not of a confidential character open to
public inspection during usual business hours. His compensation as
secretary shall be fixed by the Board at not exceeding six thousand
pesos a year.
SECTION 15. Appropriation ordinances. – 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 July of the new year as the
appropriation ordinance for that year, and such appropriation ordinance
shall be deemed into effect on the first day of July of each year, as
the appropriation ordinance for that year, until a new appropriation
ordinance is duly enacted.
SECTION 16. Method of transacting business by the
Board; Veto; Authentication and publication of ordinances. – The Board
shall hold one ordinary session for the transaction of business during
each week on a day which shall be fixed by resolution, and such
extraordinary sessions as may be called by the mayor. It shall sit with
open doors, unless otherwise ordered by an affirmative vote of five
members. It shall keep a record of its proceedings and determine its
rule of procedure not herein set forth. Five members of the Board shall
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. But a smaller
number may adjourn from day to day and may compel the immediate
attendance of any member absent without good cause by issuing to the
police of the city an order for his arrest and production at the
session under such penalties as shall have been previously prescribed
by ordinance. Five affirmative votes shall be necessary for the passage
of any ordinance, or of any resolution, or motion directing the payment
of money or creating liability, but other measures shall prevail, upon
the majority votes of the members present at any meeting duly called
and held. 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 approved ordinance,
resolution or motion shall be sealed with the seal of the Board, signed
by the presiding officer and the secretary of the Board and recorded in
a book kept for the purpose, and shall, on the day following its
passage, be posted by the secretary at the main entrance to the city
hall, and shall take effect and be in force on and after the tenth day
following its passage unless otherwise stated in said ordinance,
resolution or motion or vetoed by the mayor as hereinafter provided. A
vetoed ordinance, if repassed, shall take effect ten days after the
veto is overridden by the required votes unless otherwise stated in the
ordinance or again disapproved by the mayor within said time.
Each ordinance and each resolution or motion directing the payment of
money or creating liability enacted or adopted by the Board 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 within 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 six members of the Board,
and again forwarded to the mayor for his approval, and if within ten
days after its receipt he does not return it with his veto, it shall be
deemed to be approved. If within said time he again returns it with his
veto, it shall be forwarded forthwith to the President of the
Philippines for his approval or disapproval, which shall be final. The
mayor shall have the power to veto any particular item or items of any
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 does 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, and
motions returned to the Board with his veto, but should an item or
items in an appropriation ordinance be disapproved by the mayor, the
corresponding item or items in the appropriation ordinance of the
previous year shall be deemed restored unless otherwise expressly
directed in the veto.
SECTION 17. Legislative powers. – The Municipal
Board shall have the following legislative powers:
(a) To provide for the levy and collection of taxes
for general and special purposes in accordance with law including
specifically the power to levy real property tax not exceeding two per
centum ad valorem.
(b) To float bonds, subject to existing laws and
regulations, for the purpose of financing public works projects.
(c) To fix the tariff of fees and charges for all
services rendered by the city or any of its departments, branches, or
offices.
(d) To provide for the erection and maintenance or
rental, in case of need, of the necessary buildings for the use of the
city.
(e) To fix the number and salaries of officials and
employees of the city not otherwise provided for in this Act.
(f) To provide for the establishment and maintenance
of free public schools for intermediate instruction and to acquire
sites for schoolhouses for primary and intermediate classes through
purchases or conditional or absolute donation.
(g) To establish secondary, and professional
schools; and with the approval of the Director of Public Schools, to
fix reasonable fees for instruction therein.
(h) To provide for the establishment and maintenance
of an efficient police force for the maintenance of law and order in
the city, and make all necessary police ordinances, with a view to the
confinement and reformation of vagrants, disorderly persons,
mendicants, and prostitutes, and persons convicted of violating any of
the ordinances of the city.
(i) To maintain the city courts established by law
which shall have jurisdiction of all criminal cases under the
ordinances of the city, and such further jurisdiction as may be herein
or hereafter conferred.
(j) To establish fire limits, determine the kinds of
buildings or structures that may be erected within said limits,
regulate the manner of constructing and repairing the same, and fix the
fees for permits for the construction, repair, or demolition of
buildings and structures.
(k) To regulate the use of lights and in stables,
shops and other buildings and places, and to regulate and restrict the
issuance of permits for the building of bonfires and the use of
firecrackers, fireworks, torpedoes, candles, sky-rockets, and other
pyrotechnic displays, and to fix the fees for such permits.
(l) To make regulations to protect the public from
conflagrations and to prevent and mitigate the effects of famine,
flood, storms, and other public calamities, and to provide relief for
persons suffering from the same.
(m) To establish and maintain engine houses, fire
engine, hose carts, hooks and ladders, and other equipments for the
prevention and extinguishment of fires, and to regulate the management
and use of the same.
(n) To regulate and fix the amount of the license
fees for the following: hawkers or peddlers and hucksters, not
including hucksters or peddlers who sell only native vegetables,
fruits, or foods, personally carried by hucksters or peddlers,
auctioneers, plumbers, barbers, collection agencies, mercantile
agencies, shipping and intelligence offices, private detective
agencies, advertising agencies, beauty parlors, massagists, tattooers,
jugglers, acrobat, hotel clubs, restaurants, cafes, lodging houses,
boarding houses, livery garages, livery stables, laundries, boarding
stables, dealers in large cattle, public billiard tables, cleaning and
dyeing establishments, public warehouses, circuses, and other similar
parades, public vehicles, race tracks, horse races, bowling alleys,
shooting galleries, slot machines, merry go-rounds and other similar
riding devices, and the keeping, preparation, and sale of meat,
poultry, fish, game, butter, cheese, lard, vegetable, bread, and other
provisions; and to impose a municipal occupation tax, not to exceed
fifty pesos per annum, on lawyers, medical practitioners, land
surveyors, architects, public accountants, civil, electrical, chemical,
mechanical, or mining engineers, radio engineers or technicians,
veterinarians, dental surgeons, opticians and optometrists, insurance
agents and business consultants, professional appraisers or
connoisseurs of tobacco or other domestic or foreign products, music
teachers, piano tuners, nurses and midwives, auctioneers, plumbers,
electrical contractors, building contractors, massagists, physical
culture instructors, chiropodists, money changers, real estate,
commercial and other brokers, and persons engaged in the transportation
of passengers or freight by hire, including common carriers and
transportation contractors: provided, that persons exercising their
profession or occupation only as salaried employees and not as
independent practitioners shall be exempt from the municipal occupation
tax herein prescribed.
(o) To tax, fix the license fee and regulate the
business of hotels, restaurants, refreshment places, cafes, lodging
houses, boarding houses, brewers, distillers, rectifiers, laundries,
dyeing, and cleaning establishments, beauty parlors, physical or beauty
culture and fashion schools, clubs, livery garages, public warehouses,
pawnshops, theaters, cinematographs, and the letting or subletting of
lands and buildings, whether used for commercial, industrial or
residential purposes; and further to fix the location of, and to tax,
fix the license fee on, and regulate the business of, livery stables,
boarding stables, embalmers, public billiard tables, public pool
tables, bowling alleys, dance halls, public dancing halls, cabarets,
circuses and other similar parades, public vehicles, race tracks, horse
races, dog races, cockpits, dealers in second-hand merchandise, junk
dealers, theatrical performances, boxing contests, public exhibitions,
blacksmith shops, foundries, steam boilers, lumber yards, shipyards,
the storage and sale of gunpowder, tar, pitch, resin, coal, oil,
gasoline, benzine, turpentine, hemp, cotton, nitroglycerin, petroleum
or any of the products thereof and of all other highly combustible or
explosive materials, and other establishments likely to endanger the
public safety or give rise to conflagrations or explosions, and,
subject to the provisions of rules and regulation issued by the Bureau
of Health Services in accordance with law: provided, that no license
shall be granted to any theater or cinematograph unless the applicant
for said license agrees to exhibit pictures made in the Philippines to
the extent of ten per centum of their annual exhibitions: and provided,
further, that any violation of this condition shall cause the
revocation of said license.
(p) To tax and fix the license fees on printers or
bookbinders or both, tailor shops, milliners, manufacturers of jewelry,
embroideries, sail or awnings or both, rope, paper, leather goods,
including shoes, slippers, sandals, harnesses and valises or bags,
sporting goods, rubber goods, plastics and celluloid products,
hardware, including tinware, ceramic, and cement product, hardware,
including glasswares, cooking utensils, electrical goods and
construction materials, chemical products, including drugs, perfumes,
toilet articles, paints, dyes and inks, textiles, shell lamps or lamp
shades or both, statuettes or tombstones or both, sacks, furniture of
all kinds, including rattan goods, wire brass beds or both, clothing,
hats, eyeglasses or optical goods or both, fertilizers and buttons.
Manufacturers above-mentioned shall not be subject to the payment of
any municipal tax or license fee as retail dealers of their own
products: provided, that any manufacturing conducted solely by the
immediate member of a family at their own home shall not be subject to
any tax or license fee.
(q) To tax and fix the license fee on dealers in
general merchandise, including importers and indentors, except those
dealers who may be expressly subject to the payment of some other
municipal tax under the provisions of this section. Dealers in general
merchandise shall be classified as (a) wholesale dealers and (b) retail
dealers. For purposes of tax on retail dealers, general merchandise
shall be classified into four main classes: namely (1) luxury articles,
(2) semi-luxury articles.(3) essential commodities, and (4)
miscellaneous articles, A separate license shall be prescribed for each
class but where commodities of different classes are sold in the same
establishment, it shall not be compulsory for the owner to secure more
than one license if he pays the higher or highest rate of tax
prescribed by ordinance. Wholesale dealers shall pay the license tax as
such, as may be provided by ordinance.
For purposes of this section, the term "General Merchandise" shall
include poultry and livestock, agricultural products, fish and other
allied products.
(r) To tax, fix the license fees on, and regulate
the sale of intoxicating liquors, whether imported or locally
manufactured. To tax motor and other vehicles operating within the City
of Cadiz, the provisions of any existing law to the contrary
notwithstanding, and draft animals not paying any national tax:
provided, that all automobiles and trucks belonging to the National
Government or to any provincial or municipal government shall be exempt
from such tax.
(s) To regulate the method of using steam engines
and boilers, other than marine or belonging to the National Government;
to provide for the inspection thereof, and fix a reasonable fee for
such inspection, and to regulate and fix the fees for the license of
the engineers engaged in operating the same.
(t) To provide for the prohibition and suppression
of riots, affrays, disturbances, and disorderly assemblies; houses of
ill-fame and other disorderly houses; gaming houses, gambling and all
fraudulent devices for the purposes of obtaining money or property;
prostitution, vagrancy, intoxication, fighting, quarrelling, and all
disorderly conduct; the printing, circulation, exhibition or sale of
obscene pictures, books, or publications, and for the maintenance and
preservation of peace and good morals.
(u) To prohibit, or regulate and fix the license
fees for the keeping of dogs, and to authorize their impounding and
destruction when running at large contrary to ordinance, and to tax and
regulate the keeping or training of fighting cocks.
(v) To establish and maintain municipal pounds; to
regulate, restrain, and prohibit the running at large of domestic
animals, and provide for the distraining, impounding and sale of the
same for the penalty incurred and the cost of the proceeding; and to
impose penalties upon the owners of said animals for the violation of
any ordinance in relation thereto.
(w) To prohibit and provide for the punishment of
cruelty to animals.
(x) To require property owners by ordinance to
construct or repair, at their expense, sidewalks along the street or
streets adjacent to their lots in accordance with the specifications of
the city engineer as to quality, width, and grade, and subject to his
supervision and approval, providing that, in case of failure or
inability of the property owners to comply with the requirement within
a specified period of time after demand, the city engineer shall cause
the work to be done and the cost thereof collected as a special
assessment from such owners, who may choose to pay the same in full, or
in ten equal yearly installments which shall be due and payable to the
City of Cadiz in the same manner as the annual tax levied on real
estate, and shall be made subject to the same penalties for
delinquency, and enforceable by the same remedies, as such annual tax;
and all said sums and amounts shall from the day in which they were
assessed constitute liens on the property against which the same were
assessed and shall take precedence over any and other liens which may
exist upon such property excepting only such as may be have been
attached as a result of the nonpayment of said annual tax.
(y) To regulate the inspection, weighing, and
measuring of brick, lumber, coal and other articles of merchandise.
(z) Subject to the provisions of existing law, to
provide for the laying out, construction and improvement, and to
regulate the use of streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, wharves,
piers, parks, cemeteries, and other public places; to provide for
lighting, cleaning, and sprinkling of streets and public places; to
regulate, fix license fees for and prohibit the use of the same for
processions, signs, sign-posts, awnings, awning posts and the carrying
or displaying of banners, placards, advertisements, or handbills, or
the flying of signs, flags or banners whether along, across, over or
from buildings along the same; to prohibit the placing, throwing,
depositing, or leaving of obstacles of any kind, garbage, refuse, or
other offensive matter or matter liable to cause damage in the street
and other public places and to provide for the collection and
disposition thereof; to provide for the inspection of, fix the license
fees for, and regulate the openings in the same for the laying of gas,
water, sewer, and other pipes, the building and repair of tunnels,
sewers, and drains, and all structures in and under the same and the
erecting of poles and the stringing of wires therein; to provide for
and regulate crosswalks, curbs, and gutters therein; to name streets
without a name and provide for and regulate the numbering of houses and
lots fronting thereon or in the interior of the blocks; to regulate
traffic and sales upon the streets and other public places; to provide
for the abatement of nuisance in the same and punish the authors or
owners thereof; to provide for the construction and maintenance, and
regulate the use of bridges, viaducts, and culverts; to prohibit and
regulate ball playing, kite flying, hoop rolling, and other amusements
which may annoy persons using the streets and public places, or
frighten horses or other animals; to regulate the speed of horses and
other animals, motor and other vehicles, cars and locomotives, within
the limits of the city; to regulate the locating, constructing, and
laying of track of horse, electric, and other forms of railroad in the
streets or other public places of the city authorized by law; to
provide for and change the location, grade, and crossings of railroads,
and compel any such railroad to raise or lower its tracks to conform to
such provisions for changes; and to require railroad companies to fence
their proper, or any part thereof, to provide suitable protection
against injury to persons or property, and to construct and repair
ditches, drains, sewers and culverts along and under their tracks, so
that the natural drainage of the streets and adjacent property shall
not be obstructed.
(aa) To provide for the maintenance of waterworks
for the purpose of supplying water to the inhabitants of the city, and
for the purification of the source of supply and the places through
which the same passes, and to regulate the consumption and use of the
water; to fix and provide for the collection of rents thereof; and to
regulate the construction, repair, and use of hydrants, pumps,
cisterns, and reservoirs.
(bb) To provide for the establishment and
maintenance and regulate the use of public drains, sewers, latrines and
cesspools.
(cc) Subject to the provisions of rules and
regulations issued by the Department of Health in accordance with law,
to provide for the establishment and maintenance and fix the fees for
the use of, and regulate public stables, laundries, and baths, and
public markets and slaughter-houses, and to prohibit or permit the
establishment or operation within the city limits of public markets and
slaughterhouses, by any person, entity, association, or corporation
other than the city.
(dd) To regulate, inspect and provide measures
preventing any discrimination or the exclusion of any race or races in
or from any institution, establishments, or services open to the public
within the city limits, or in the sale and supply of gas or
electricity, or in the telephone and street- railway service; to fix
and regulate charges therefor where the same have not been fixed by
national law; to regulate and provide for the inspection of all gas,
electric, telephone, and street-railway, conduits, mains, meters, and
other apparatus, and provide for the condemnation, substitution or
removal of the same when defective or dangerous.
(ee) To declare, prevent, and provide for the
abatement of nuisance; to regulate the ringing of bells and the making
of loud or unusual noises; to provide that owners, agents, or tenants
of buildings or premises keep and maintain the same in sanitary
condition, and that, in case of failure to do so, after sixty days,
from the date of serving of a written notice, the city health officer
shall cause the same to be kept in a sanitary condition and the cost
thereof be assessed to the owner to the extent of not to exceed sixty
per centum of the assessed value, which cost shall constitute a lien
against the property, and to regulate or prohibit or fix the license
fees for the use of property on or near public ways, grounds, or
places, or elsewhere within the city, for the display of electric signs
or the erection or maintenance of billboards or structures of whatever
materials erected, maintained, or used for the display of posters,
signs, or other pictorial or reading matter, except signs displayed at
the place or places where the profession or business advertised thereby
is in whole or part conducted.
(ff) To authorize the free distribution of medicine
by the city health officer to the employees and laborers of the city,
and of fresh native milk, if available, to indigent mothers residing in
the city.
(gg) To establish and regulate the size, speed and
operation of motor and other vehicles within the city; to establish bus
stops and terminals; and prohibit and regulate the entrance of
provincial public utility vehicles into the city, except those passing
through the city.
(hh) To tax, license and regulate any business,
trade or occupation being conducted or practised within the City of
Cadiz, not otherwise enumerated in the preceding subsections, including
percentage taxes based on gross sales or receipts.
(ii) To levy or impose annual tax upon every
signboard of professionals and commercial establishments in the city in
the amount not exceeding two pesos; upon every transient while
sojourning in the city and upon every contract laborer working in any
agricultural, commercial and industrial firm, enterprise or
establishment within the city: provided, that the amount collected
therefrom shall be devoted exclusively to the promotion of public
schools in the city.
(jj) To pass an ordinance subjecting all real estate
transactions to one per cent sales tax.
(kk) To tax, license, permit and regulate wages or
betting by the public on boxing, sipa, bowling, billiards, pools, horse
or dog races, cockpits, jai-alai, roller or ice- skating or any
sporting or athletic contests, as well as grant exclusive rights to
establishments for this purpose, notwithstanding any existing law to
the contrary.
(ll) To enact on ordinance or pass a resolution
providing for the automatic retention of the expected allotments of
one-twelfth of the annual allotments of the city. Such allotments of
the city are to be remitted to the city treasurer within ten days.
However, if collections are less than the allotment the Bureau of
Internal Revenue has to release the balance to the city every quarter.
(mm) To enact all ordinances it may deem necessary
and proper for the sanitation and safety, the furtherance of the
prosperity, and the promotion of the morality, peace, good order,
comfort, convenience and general welfare of the city and its
inhabitants, and such others as may be necessary to carry into effect
and discharge the powers and duties conferred by this Charter; and to
fix penalties for the violation of ordinances which shall not exceed
two hundred pesos fine or six months imprisonment, or both such fine
and imprisonment, for a single offense.
SECTION 18. Restrictive provisions. – No commercial
sign, signboard, or billboard, shall be erected or displayed on public
lands, premises, or buildings. If, after due investigation, and having
given the owner an opportunity to be heard, the mayor of the city shall
decide that any sign, signboard, or billboard displayed or exposed to
public view is offensive to the sight or is otherwise a nuisance, he
may order the removal of such sign, signboard, or billboard, and if
same is not removed within ten days after he has issued such order he
may himself cause its removal, and the sign, signboard, or billboard
shall thereupon be forfeited to the city, and expenses incident to the
removal of the same shall become a lawful charge against any person or
property liable for the erection or display thereof.
ARTICLE IV
Departments and Officers
SECTION 19. City Departments. – There shall be a
finance department, an engineering department, a law department, a
health department, a police and fire department and an assessment
department. Unless otherwise provided by law, the mayor shall have
general supervisory and general control over all the city departments.
The Municipal Board may from time to time make such readjustment of the
duties of the several departments as the public interest may demand,
and may consolidate any department, division or office of the city with
any other department, division or office.
Sec. 20. Powers and duties of heads of
departments. – Each head of department of the city government shall be
in control of such department and shall possess such powers as may be
prescribed herein or by ordinance. He shall certify to the correctness
of all payrolls and vouchers of his department covering the payment of
money before payment, except as herein otherwise expressly provided. At
least four months before the beginning of each fiscal year, he shall
prepare and present to the mayor an estimate of the appropriation
necessary for the operation of his department during the ensuing fiscal
year, and submit therewith such information for purposes of comparison
as the mayor may desire. He shall submit to the mayor as often as
required reports covering the operation of his department.
In case of the absence or sickness, or inability to act for any other
reason, of the head of one of the city departments, the officer next in
charge of that department shall act in his place with authority to sign
all necessary papers, vouchers and requisitions and similar documents.
Sec. 21. Appointment and removal of officials and
employees. – The mayor shall appoint the city treasurer, the city
health officer, the chief of police and fire department, and other
heads and other employees of such city departments as may be created.
Said officers shall not be suspended nor removed except in the manner
and for causes provided by law: provided, that appointments of heads
and other employees of the city shall be limited to civil service
eligibles as from time to time be certified as such by the Commissioner
of Civil Service.
Sec. 22. Full time duty. – Each city officer,
except members of the Municipal Board, shall devote his time and
attention exclusively during the usual office hours to the duties of
his office, and such members shall attend the regular sessions of the
Board. No city officer shall hold more than one office unless expressly
so provided by law. But this section shall not apply to other persons
discharging public duties in the city under the National Government who
receives no compensation for their services.
Sec. 23. Prohibited transactions. – It shall be
unlawful for any city officer, directly or individually or as a member
of a firm, to engage in any business transaction with the city, or with
any of its authorized officials, board, agents or attorneys, whereby
money is to be paid, directly or indirectly, out of the resources of
the city to such person or firm; to purchase any real estate or other
property belonging to the city or which shall be sold for taxes or
assessments, or by virtue of legal process at the suit of the city; or
to be surety for any person having a contract or doing business with
the city for the performance of which security may be required; or to
be surety on the official bond of any officer of the city.
Sec. 24. Statement of assets. – Before assuming
office, every official and regular employee of the city government
shall file in the office of the city attorney a sworn statement of the
assets and property holdings.
ARTICLE V
Finance Department
Sec. 25. The City Treasurer – His powers, duties
and compensation. – There shall be a city treasurer, who shall have
charge of the department of finance and shall act as chief fiscal
officer and financial adviser of the city and custodian of its funds.
He shall receive a salary not exceeding eleven thousand four hundred
pesos per annum. He shall have the following general powers and duties:
(a) He shall collect all taxes due the city, all
licenses authorized by law or ordinance, all rents due for lands,
markets and other property owned by the city, all further charges of
whatever nature fixed by law or ordinance, and shall receive and issue
receipt for all costs, fees, fines, and forfeitures imposed by the city
court.
(b) He shall collect all miscellaneous charges made
by the engineering department, and by other departments of the city
government, and all charges made by the city engineer for inspections,
permits, licenses, and the installations, maintenance and services
rendered in the operation of the private privy system.
(c) He shall collect, as deputy of the Collector of
Internal Revenue, by himself or through deputies, all taxes and charges
imposed by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines upon
property or persons in the City of Cadiz depositing daily such
collections in any depository bank of the government.
(d) Unless otherwise specifically provided by law or
resolution he shall perform in and for the city duties imposed by law
or resolution upon provincial treasurers generally, as well as the
other duties imposed upon him by law.
(e) He shall purchase and issue all supplies,
equipment or other property required by the city, through the
Purchasing Agent, or otherwise, as may be authorized, subject to the
general provisions of law relating thereto.
(f) He shall be accountable for all funds and
property of the city and shall render such accounts in connection
therewith as may be prescribed by the Auditor General.
(g) He shall deposit daily all city funds and
collection in any bank duly designated as government depository.
(h) He shall disburse the funds of the city in
accordance with duly authorized appropriations, upon property executed
vouchers bearing the approval of the chief of the department concerned,
and on or before the twentieth day of each month he shall furnish the
mayor and the Municipal Board for their information a statement of the
appropriations, expenditures and balances of all funds and accounts as
of the last of the month preceding.
ARTICLE VI
Law Department
Sec. 26. The City Attorney and Register of Deeds
ex-officio – His compensation, powers and duties. – The city attorney
shall be the chief legal adviser of the city. He shall receive a salary
of not exceeding eight thousand four hundred pesos per annum. He shall
have the following powers and duties:
(a) He shall represent the city in all civil cases
wherein the city or any officer thereof, in his official capacity, is a
party.
(b) He shall, when directed by the mayor, institute
and prosecute in the city's interest all suits on any bond, lease, or
other contracts and upon breach of violation thereof.
(c) He shall, when requested, attend meetings of the
Board, draw ordinances, contracts, bonds, leases and other instruments
involving any interest of the city, and inspect and pass upon any such
instrument already drawn.
(d) He shall give his opinion in writing, when
requested by the Mayor or the Board or any of the heads of the city
departments, upon any question relating to the city or the rights of
duties of any officer thereof.
(e) He shall, whenever it is brought to his
knowledge that any person, firm or corporation holding or exercising
any franchise or public privilege from the city, has failed to comply
with any condition, or to pay any consideration mentioned in the grant
of such franchise or privileges, investigate or cause to be
investigated the same and report to the mayor.
(f) He shall investigate all charges of crimes,
misdemeanors and violations of law and city ordinances and prepare the
necessary information or make the necessary complaints against the
persons accused. He may conduct such investigations by taking oral
evidence of reputed witnesses and for this purpose may, by subpoena or
subpoena duces tecum, summon witnesses to appear and testify under oath
before him, or to produce documents and other evidence before him, and
the attendance of, or the production of documents and other evidence by
an absent or recalcitrant witnesses may be enforced by application to
the city court or the Court of First Instance.
(g) He shall have charge of the prosecution of all
crimes, misdemeanors and violation of laws and city ordinances triable
in the Court of First Instance of Negros Occidental and the city court
of the city, and shall discharge all the duties in respect to criminal
prosecutions enjoined by law upon provincial fiscals.
(h) He shall cause to be investigated the causes of
sudden deaths which have not been satisfactorily explained and when
there is suspicion that the cause arose from unlawful acts or omissions
of other persons of from foul play. For that purpose he may cause
autopsies to be made in case it is deemed necessary and shall be
entitled to demand and receive for the purpose of such investigations
or autopsies the aid of the health officer.
(i) He shall at all times render such professional
service as the mayor or Board may require, and shall have such powers
and perform the duties prescribed by law for register of deeds.
ARTICLE VII
Engineering Department
Sec. 27. The City Engineer – His powers and
duties. – There shall be a city engineer, who shall be in charge of the
Department of Engineering and Public Works. He shall receive a salary
not exceeding eleven thousand four hundred pesos per annum. He shall
have the following powers and duties:
(a) He shall have charge of all the surveying and
engineering work of the city, and shall perform such service in
connection with public improvements, or any work entered upon or
proposed by the city, or any department thereof, as may require the
skill and experience of a civil engineer.
(b) He shall ascertain, record, and establish
monuments of the city and locate, establish and survey all city
property and also private property abutting on the same, whenever
directed by the mayor.
(c) He shall prepare and submit plans, maps,
specifications and estimates for buildings, streets, bridges, docks,
and other public works, and supervise the construction and repair of
the same.
(d) He shall make such tests and inspections of
engineering materials used in construction and repair as may be
necessary to protect the city from the use of materials of a poor or
dangerous quality.
(e) He shall have the care of all public buildings,
including markets and slaughterhouses and all buildings rented for city
purposes, and of any system now or hereafter established by the city
for lighting the streets, public places or public buildings.
(f) He shall have the care of all public streets,
parks and bridges, and shall maintain, clean, sprinkle and regulate the
use of the same for all purposes as provided by ordinance; shall
collect and dispose of all garbage, refuse, the contents of closets,
vaults and cesspools, and all other offensive and dangerous substances
within the city.
(g) He shall have the care and custody of all public
levees, and landing places owned by the city.
(h) He shall prevent the encroachment of private
buildings and fences on the streets and public places of the city.
(i) He shall have general supervision, and
inspection of all private levees and landing places and other property
bordering on the river, esteros and shall issue permit for the
construction, repair, and removal of the same.
(j) He shall have the care and custody of the public
system of waterworks and sewers, and all sources of water supply, and
shall control, maintain and regulate the use of the same, in accordance
with the ordinance relating thereto; shall inspect and regulate the use
of all private system for supplying water to the city and its
inhabitants, and all private sewers and their connections with the
public sewer system.
(k) He shall supervise the laying of mains and
connections for the purpose of supplying gas to the inhabitants of the
city.
(l) He shall inspect and report upon the conditions
of public property and public works whenever required by the mayor.
(m) He shall supervise and regulate the location and
use of engines, boilers, forges and other manufacturing and heating
appliances in accordance with law and ordinance relating thereto. He is
authorized to charge fees, at rates to be fixed by the Board with the
approval of the mayor, for the sanitation of transportation services
and supplies furnished by his department.
(n) He shall inspect and supervise the construction,
removal and safety of private buildings, and regulate and enforce the
numbering of houses, in accordance with the ordinances of the city.
(o) With the previous approval of the mayor in each
case, he shall order the removal of buildings and structures erected in
violation of the ordinances; shall order the removal of the materials
employed in the construction or repair of any building or structure
made in violation of said ordinances; and shall cause buildings and
structures dangerous to the public to be made secure or torn down.
(p) He shall file and preserve all maps, plans,
notes, surveys, and other papers and documents pertaining to his
office.
Sec. 28. Execution of authorized public works and
improvements. – All repair or construction of any work or public
improvement, except parks, boulevards, streets or alleys involving an
estimated cost of three thousand pesos or more shall be awarded by the
mayor upon the recommendation of the city engineer to the lowest
responsible bidder after public advertisement by posting notices of the
call for bids in conspicuous places in the city hall and other public
places, and by publication in the Official Gazette, both for not less
than ten days: provided, however, that the City engineer may, with the
approval of the mayor, execute by administration any such public works
costing three thousand pesos or more.
In case of public works involving an expenditure of less than three
thousand pesos, it shall be discretionary with the city engineer either
to proceed with the work himself or to let the contract to the lowest
bidder after such publication and notice as shall be deemed appropriate
or as may be, by regulations, prescribed.
ARTICLE VIII
Health Department
Sec. 29. The City Health Officer – His salary,
powers and duties. – There shall be a city health officer, who shall
have charge of the health department. He shall receive a salary not
exceeding eleven thousand four hundred pesos per annum. The city health
officer shall have the following general powers and duties:
(a) He shall have general supervision over the
health and sanitary conditions of the city.
(b) He shall execute and enforce all laws,
ordinances and regulations relating to the public health.
(c) He shall recommend to the Municipal Board the
passage of such ordinances as he may deem necessary for the
preservation of the public health.
(d) He shall cause to be prosecuted all violations
of sanitary laws or ordinances or regulations.
(e) He shall make sanitary inspections and may be
aided therein by such members of the police force of the city or the
national police as shall be designated as sanitary police by the chief
of police or proper national police officer and such sanitary inspector
as may be authorized by law.
(f) He shall keep a civil register for the city and
shall record therein all births, marriages and deaths with their
respective dates.
(g) He shall perform such other duties, not
repugnant to law or ordinance, with reference to the health and
sanitation of the city as the Director of Health Services shall direct.
ARTICLE IX
Police and Fire Department
Sec. 30. The Chief of Police – His powers, duties
and compensation. – There shall be a chief of police who shall have
charge of the police and fire department. He shall receive a salary of
not exceeding nine thousand pesos per annum. He shall have the
following general powers and duties:
(a) He may issue supplementary regulations not
incompatible with law or general regulations promulgated by the proper
department head of the National Government in accordance with law, for
the government of the city police and detective force.
(b) He shall quell riots, disorders, disturbances of
the peace, and shall arrest and prosecute violations of any law or
ordinances; shall exercise police supervision over all land and water
within the police jurisdiction of the city; shall be charged with the
protection of the rights or person and property wherever found within
the jurisdiction of the city, and shall arrest when necessary to
prevent the escape of the offender, violator of any law or ordinance,
and all who obstruct or interfere with him in the discharge of his
duty; shall have charge of the city prison; shall be responsible for
the safekeeping of all prisoners until they shall be released from
custody, in accordance with law, or delivered to the warden of the
proper prison or penitentiary.
(c) He may take good and sufficient bail for the
appearance before the judge of the city court of any person arrested
for violation of any city ordinance.
(d) He shall have authority within the police limits
of the city, to serve and execute criminal processes of any court.
(e) He shall be the deputy sheriff of the city, and
as such he shall, personally or by representative, attend the sessions
of the city court, and shall execute promptly and faithfully, all writs
and processes of said court.
(f) He shall have charge of the fire-engine houses,
fire engines, hose trucks, hooks and ladders, and all other fire
apparatus.
(g) He shall have full police powers in the vicinity
of fires.
(h) He shall have authority to remove or demolish
any building or other property whenever it shall become necessary to
prevent the spreading of fire or to protect adjacent property.
(i) He shall investigate and report to the mayor
upon the origin and cause of all fires occurring within the city.
(j) He shall inspect all buildings erected or under
construction or repair within the city and determine whether they
provide sufficient protection against fire and comply with the
ordinance relating thereto.
(k) He shall have charge of the city fire alarm
service.
(l) He shall supervise and regulate the stringing,
grounding, and installation of wires for all electrical connections
with a view to avoiding conflagrations, interference with public
traffic or safety, or the necessary operation of the police and fire
department.
(m) He shall supervise the manufacture, storage and
use of petroleum, gas, acetylene, gunpowder and other highly
combustible matter and explosives.
(n) He shall have such other powers and perform such
other duties as may be prescribed by law or ordinance.
Sec. 31. Chief of the detective service. – There
shall be a chief of the detective service who shall, under the chief of
police, have charge of the detective work of the department and of the
detective force of the city, and shall perform such other duties as may
be assigned to him by the chief of police or prescribed by law or
ordinance.
The chief of detective service shall receive a salary of not exceeding
seven thousand eight hundred pesos per annum.
Sec. 32. Peace Officers – Their powers and
duties. – The mayor, the chief of police, the chief of the detective
service, and all officers and members of the city police and detective
force shall be peace officers. Such peace officers are authorized to
serve and execute all processes of the city court and criminal
processes of all other court to whomsoever directed within the
jurisdictional limits of the city or within the police limits as
hereinabove defined, within the same territory, to pursue and arrest,
without warrant, any person found in suspicious places or under
suspicious circumstances reasonably tending to show that such person
has committed, or is about to commit, any crime or breach or peace to
arrest or cause to be arrested, without warrant, any offender when the
offense is committed in the presence of peace officer or within his
view; and in such pursuit or arrest, to enter any building, ship, boat
or vessel or take into custody any person therein suspected of being
concerned in such crime or breach of the peace, and any property
suspected of having been stolen, and to exercise such other powers and
perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law or ordinance.
They shall detain an arrested person only in accordance with the
provisions of existing laws relative to such detention until he can be
brought before the proper magistrate. Whenever the mayor shall deem it
necessary to avert danger or to protect life and property, in case of
riot, disturbance, or public calamity, or when he has reason to fear
any serious violation of law and order, he may call upon the provincial
commander, or other members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
ARTICLE X
Assessment Department
Sec. 33. The City Treasurer as city assessor
ex-officio – His powers and duties. – The city treasurer shall act as
the city assessor ex-officio with an additional compensation of one
thousand eight hundred pesos per annum and shall have charge of the
department of assessment. He and his authorized deputies are empowered
to administer any oath authorized in connection with the valuation of
real estate for the assessment and collection of taxes. He shall make
the list of taxable real estate in the city, arranging in the order of
the lot and block numbers of the names of the owners thereof, with a
brief description of the property opposite each such name and the cash
value thereof. In making this list, the city assessor shall take into
consideration any sworn statement made by the owners of the property,
but shall not be prevented thereby from considering other evidence on
the subject and exercising his own judgment in respect thereto. For the
purposes of completing this list, he and his representatives may enter
upon the real estate for the purpose of examining and measuring it, and
may summon witnesses, administer oaths to them and subject them to
examination concerning the ownership and amount of real estate and its
cost value. He may, if necessary, examine the records of the office of
the Register of Deeds of the Province of Negros Occidental showing the
ownership of real estate in the city.
Sec. 34. Real estate exemption from taxation. –
The following shall be exempt from taxation:sia
(a) Lands or buildings owned by the Republic of the
Philippines, the Province of Negros Occidental or the City of Cadiz and
burying grounds, churches and their adjacent parsonages and convents,
and lands or buildings used exclusively for religious, charitable,
scientific or educational purposes, and not for profit; but such
exception shall not extend to lands or buildings held for investment
though income therefrom be devoted to religious, charitable, scientific
or educational purposes.
(b) Lands or buildings which are the only real
property of the owner, and the value of which does not exceed two
hundred pesos.
(c) Machinery, which term shall embrace machines,
mechanical contrivances, instruments, appliances and apparatus attached
to the real estate, used for industrial, agricultural or manufacturing
purposes, during the first five years of the operation of the machinery.
Sec. 35. Declaration to be made by persons
acquiring or improving real estate. – It shall be the duty of each
person who, at any time, acquires real estate in the city, and of each
person who constructs or adds to any improvements on real estate owned
by him in the city, to prepare and present to the city assessor
ex-officio within a period of sixty days next succeeding such
acquisition, construction or addition, a sworn declaration setting for
the value of the real estate acquired or the improvement constructed or
addition made by him and a description of such property sufficient to
enable the city assessor readily to identify the same. Any person
having acquired real estate who fails to make and present the
declaration herein required within the said period of sixty days shall
be deemed to have waived his right to notice of the assessment of such
property and the assessment of the same in the name of its former owner
shall in all cases be valid and binding on all persons interested and
for all purposes, as though the same has been assessed in the name of
its present owner.
Sec. 36. Action when owner makes no returns or
its unknown or ownership is in dispute or in doubt or when land and
improvements are separately owned. – If the owner of any parcel of real
estate shall fail to make a return thereof, or if the city assessor
ex-officio is unable to discover the owner of any real estate, he shall
nevertheless list the same for taxation, and charge the tax against the
true owner, if unknown, and if unknown then as against an unknown
owner. In case of doubt or dispute as to ownership of real estate, the
taxes shall be levied against the possessor or possessors thereof. When
it shall appear that there are separate owners of the land and the
improvements thereon, a separate assessment of the property of each
shall be made.
Sec. 37. Action in case estate has escaped
taxation. – If it shall come to the knowledge of the city assessor
ex-officio that any taxable real estate in the city has escaped
listing, it shall be his duty to list and assess the same at the time
and in the manner provided in the next succeeding section and to charge
against the owner thereof the taxes due for the current year and the
last preceding one year, and the taxes thus assessed shall be legal and
collectible by all the remedies herein provided, and if the failure of
the city assessor to assess such taxes at the time when they should
have been assessed was due to any fault or negligence on the part of
the owner of such property, the penalties shall be added to such back
taxes as though they had been assessed at the time when they should
have been assessed.
Sec. 38. When assessment may be increased or
reduced. – The city assessor ex-officio shall during the first fifteen
days of January of each year add to his list of taxable real estate in
the city the value of the improvements placed upon such property during
the preceding year, and any property which is taxable and which has
theretofore escaped taxation. He may during the same period revise and
correct the assessed value of any or all parcels of real estate in the
city which are assessed at their true money value, by reducing or
increasing the existing assessment as the case may be.
Sec. 39. Publication of complete list and
proceedings thereon. – The city assessor ex-officio shall, after the
list shall have been completed, inform the public by notice published
for seven days in a newspaper of general circulation in the city, if
any, and by notice posted for seven days at the main entrance of the
city hall, that the list is on file in his office and may be examined
by any person interested therein, and that upon the date fixed in the
notice, which shall not be later than the tenth day of February, the
city assessor will be in his office for the purpose of hearing
complaints as to the accuracy of the listing of the property and the
assessed value thereof. He shall further notify in writing each person
the amount of those tax will be changed by such proposed change, by
delivery or mailing at least 30 days in advance of the date fixed in
the notice, such notification to such person or his authorized agent at
the last known address of such owner or agent in the Philippines.
It shall be his duty carefully to preserve and record in his office
copies of said notice. On the day fixed in the notice, and for five
days thereafter, he shall be present in his office to hear all
complaints filed within the period by persons against whom taxes have
been assessed as owners of real estate and he shall make his decision
forthwith and enter the same in a well-bound book, to be kept by him
for that purpose, and if he shall determine that injustice had been
done or errors have been committed he is authorized to amend the list
in accordance with his findings.
Sec. 40. City assessor ex-officio to authenticate
list of real estate assessed. – The city assessor shall authenticate
each list of real estate valued and assessed by him as soon as the same
is completed, by signing the following certificate at the foot thereof:
"I hereby certify that the foregoing list contains a true statement of
the piece or pieces of taxable real estate belonging to each person
named in the list, and its true cash value, and that no real estate
taxable by law in the City of Cadiz has been omitted from the list
according to the best of my knowledge and belief.
_____________________
(Signature)
City Assessor"
Sec. 41. Time and manner of appealing to Board of
Tax Appeals. – In case any owner of real estate or his authorized agent
shall feel aggrieved by any decision of the city assessor ex-officio
under the preceding sections of this article, such owner or agent may,
within thirty days after the entry of such decision, appeal to the
Board of Tax Appeals, The appeal shall be perfected by filing a written
notice of the same within the city assessor, and it shall be the duty
of that officer forthwith to transmit the appeals to the Board of Tax
Appeals with all written evidence in his possession relating to such
assessment and valuation.
Sec. 42. Composition and compensation of Board of
Tax Appeals. – There shall be a Board of Tax Appeals which shall be
composed of five members to be appointed by the mayor. Three members of
the Board shall be selected from among government officials in the city
other than those in charge of assessment and they shall serve without
additional compensation. The two other members shall be selected from
among property owners in the city and they shall each receive a
compensation of ten pesos for each day of session actually attended.
The chairman of the Board shall be designated in the appointment and
shall have the power to designate and city official or employee to
serve as the secretary of the Board without additional compensation.
The members of the Board of Tax Appeals shall hold office for a term of
two years unless sooner removed by the mayor.
Sec. 43. Oath to be taken by members of the Board
of Tax Appeals. – Before organizing as such, the members of the Board
of Tax Appeals shall take the following oath before the city judge or
some other officer authorized to administer oaths:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will hear and determine well
and truly all matters and issues between taxpayers and the city
assessor submitted for my decision. So help me God. (In case of
affirmation the last four words are to be stricken out.)
________________________
(Signature)
(Member of the Board of Tax Appeals)
"Subscribed and sworn to (or affirmed) before me this _______ day of
_________, 196__
_______________________
(Signature and Title of Officer
Administering Oath)"
Sec. 44. Proceedings before the Board of Tax
Appeals and the Department of Head. – The Board of Tax Appeals shall
hold such number of sessions as may be authorized by the mayor, shall
hear all appeals duly transmitted to it, and shall decide the same
forthwith. It shall have authority to cause to be amended the listing
and valuation if the property in respect to which any appeal has been
perfected by order signed by the Board or a majority thereof, and
transmit it to the city assessor ex-officio who shall amend the tax
list in conformity with said order. It shall also have power to revise
and correct, with the approval of the Department Head first had, any
and all erroneous or unjust assessments and valuations for taxation,
and make a correct and just assessment and state the true valuation, in
each case when it decides that the assessment previously made is
erroneous or unjust. The assessment when so corrected shall be as
lawful and valid for all purposes as though the assessment had been
made within the time herein prescribed. Such reassessment and
revaluation shall be made on due notice to the individual concerned who
shall be entitled to be heard by the Board of Tax Appeals before any
reassessment or revaluation is made. The decision of the Board of Tax
Appeals shall be final unless the Department Head declares the decision
reopened for review by him, in which case he may make such revision or
revaluation as in his opinion the circumstances justify.
Sec. 45. Taxes on real estate – Extension and
remission of the tax. – A tax, the rate of which shall not exceed two
per centum ad valorem to be determined by the Municipal Board, shall be
levied annually on or before the second Monday of January on the
assessed value of all real estate in the city subject to taxation. All
taxes on real estate for any year shall be due and payable annually on
the first day of June and from this date such taxes together with all
penalties accruing thereto shall constitute a lien on the property
subject to such taxation.
Such lien shall be superior to all other liens, mortgages or
encumbrances of any kind whatsoever; and shall be enforceable against
the property whether in the possession of the delinquent or any
subsequent owner, and can only be removed by the payment of the tax and
penalty. At the option of the taxpayer, the tax for any year may be
paid in two installments to be fixed annually by the Municipal Board
simultaneously with the rate per centum of ad valorem taxation:
provided, that the time limit for the first and second installments
shall be set at not later than the thirty-first day of May and the
thirtieth day of October of each year, respectively.
Any person, who on the last day set for the payment of the real estate
tax as provided in the preceding paragraphs, shall be within the
premises of the city hall willing and ready to pay the tax but is
unable to effect it on account of the large number of taxpayers therein
present, shall be furnished a properly prescribed card which will
entitle him to pay the tax without penalty on the following day.
The words "paid under protest" shall be written upon the face of the
real estate tax receipt upon the request of any person willing to pay
the tax under protest. Confirmation in writing of an oral protest shall
be made within thirty days.
At the expiration of the time for the payment of the real estate tax
without penalty, the taxpayer shall be subject, from the first day of
delinquency, to the payment of a penalty at the rate of two per centum
for each full month of delinquency that has expired, on the amount of
the original tax due, until the tax shall have been paid in full or
until the property shall have been forfeited to the city as provided in
this Act: provided, that in no case shall the total penalty exceed
twenty-four per centum of the original tax due.
In the event that the crop is extensively damaged or that a great
lowering of prices of products is registered in any year, or that a
similar disaster extends throughout the province, or for other good and
sufficient reason, the Municipal Board may, by resolution passed on or
before the thirty-first day of December of such year extend the time
for the collection of the tax on real estate in the city for a period
not to exceed three months, or remit wholly or in part the payment of
the tax or penalty for the ensuing year, but such resolution shall have
to specify clearly the grounds for such extension or remission and
shall not take effect until it shall have been approved by the
Department Head.
The President of the Philippines may in his discretion, remit or reduce
the real estate taxes for any year in the city if he deems this to be
in the public interest.
Sec. 46. Seizure of the personal property for
delinquency in payment of the tax. – After a property shall have become
delinquent in the payment of taxes and said taxes and the corresponding
penalties shall remain unpaid ninety days after payment thereof shall
have become due, the city treasurer, or his deputy, if he desires to
compel payment through seizure of any personal property of any
delinquent person or persons, shall issue a duly authenticated
certificate, based on the records of his office, showing the fact of
delinquency and the amount of the tax and penalty due from said
delinquent person or persons, or from each of them. Such certificate
shall be sufficient warrant for the seizure of the personal property
belonging to the delinquent person or persons in question not exempt
from seizure; and these proceedings may be carried out by the city
treasurer, his deputy, or any other officer authorized to carry out
legal proceedings.
Sec. 47. Personal property exempt from seizure
and sale for delinquency. – The following personal property shall be
exempt from seizure, sale and execution for delinquency in the payment
of the real estate tax:
(a) Tools and implements necessarily used by the
delinquent in his trade or employment.
(b) One horse, or cow or carabao, or other beast of
burden, such as the delinquent may select, and necessarily used by him
in ordinary occupation.
(c) His necessary clothing and that of his family.
(d) Household furniture and utensils necessary for
housekeeping and used for that purpose by the delinquent, such as he
may select of a value not exceeding one hundred pesos.
(e) Provisions for individual or family use
sufficient for four months.
(f) The professional libraries of lawyers, judges,
clergymen, physicians, engineers, school teachers, and music teachers,
not exceeding five hundred pesos in value.
(g) The fishing boat and net, not exceeding the
total value of one hundred pesos, the property of any fisherman, by the
lawful use of which he earns a livelihood.
(h) Any article or material which forms part of a
home or of any improvement on any real estate.
Sec. 48. The owner may redeem personal property
before sale. – The owner of the personal property seized may redeem the
same from the collecting officer at any time after seizure and before
sale by tendering to him the amount of the tax, the penalty, and the
cost incurred up to the time of tender. The cost to be charged in
making such seizure and sale shall only embrace the actual expenses of
seizure and preservation of the property pending the sale and no charge
shall be imposed for the services of the collecting officer or his
deputy.
Sec. 49. Sale of seized personal property. –
Unless redeemed as hereinbefore provided, the property seized through
proceedings under Section forty-six hereof, shall after due
advertisement, he exhibited for sale at public auction, and so much of
the same as shall satisfy that tax, penalty and cost of seizure and
same shall be sold to the highest bidder. The purchaser at such sale
shall acquire an indefeasible title to the property sold.
The advertisement shall state the time, place and cause of sale, and be
posted for ten days prior to the date of the auction, at the main
entrance of the city hall and at a public and conspicuous place in the
district where the property was seized.
The sale shall take place at the discretion of the city treasurer or
his deputy, either at the main entrance of the city hall or at the
district where such property was seized. If no satisfactory bid is
offered in the aforementioned districts another auction shall be had,
upon notice published anew.
Sec. 50. Return of officer – Disposal of surplus.
– The officer directing the sale under the preceding section shall
forthwith make return of his proceedings and note thereof shall be made
by the city treasurer upon his records. Any surplus resulting from the
sale, over and above the tax, penalty and cost, and any property
remaining in possession of the officer, shall be returned to the
taxpayer on account of whose delinquency the sale has been made.
Sec. 51. Vesting title to real estate in the city
government. – Upon the expiration of one year from the date on which
the taxpayer has been delinquent, and in the event of continued default
in the payment of the penalty, all private right, title and interest in
and to the real estate on which said tax is delinquent, shall be
indefeasibly vested in the city government, subject only to the rights
of redemption and repurchase hereinafter provided for: provided, that
the title acquired by said city government to real estate shall not be
superior to the title thereto of the original owner prior to the
seizure thereof.
Sec. 52. Redemption of real estate before
seizure. – At any time after the delinquency shall have occurred, but
not after the expiration of ninety days from the date of publication of
the advertisement provided for in the next succeeding section, the
owner or his lawful representative, or any person having any lien,
right, or any other legal or equitable interest in said property, may
pay the taxes and penalties accrued and thus redeem the property. Such
redemption shall operate to divest the city government of its title to
the property in question and to revert the same to the original owner,
but when such redemption shall be made by a person other than the
owner, the payment shall constitute a lien on the property, and the
person making such payment shall be entitled to recover the same from
the original owner, or if he be a lessee he may retain the amount of
said payment from the proceeds of any income due to the owner of such
property: provided, that the person exercising the right of redemption
shall not acquire a title to said property better than that of the
original owner prior to the seizure.
Sec. 53. Notice of seizure of real estate. –
Notice of seizure of the real estate shall be given by posting notice
at the main entrance of the city hall, the provincial building and all
the municipal buildings in the Province of Negros Occidental in English
and Spanish and in the dialect commonly used in the locality. A copy of
said notice shall also be posted on the property subject to seizure.
Such notice shall state the name of the delinquent person, the date on
which such delinquency commenced, the amount of the taxes and penalties
then due, and shall state that unless such taxes and penalties are paid
within ninety days from the date of the publication of such notice, the
forfeiture of the delinquent real estate to the city government shall
become absolute.
Sec. 54. Ejectment of occupants of seized
property. – After the expiration of ninety days from the date of the
publication of the notice of the delinquency provided for in the next
preceding section, the city treasurer, or his deputy, may issue to the
mayor or to other officers authorized by law to execute and enforce the
laws, a certificate describing the parcel of real estate on which the
taxes have been declared delinquent, stating the amount of taxes due,
and the penalties and costs accrued by reason of the delinquency, and
requesting him to reject from said property all the tenants and
occupants thereof. Upon receiving such certificate, the mayor or any
other official authorized to enforce the law, shall forthwith have all
the tenants and occupants who refuse to recognize the title of the city
expelled from the property in question, and to that end he may use the
police force: provided, however, that if the property so seized is or
includes a residential home, the occupant thereof shall be given
sufficient time, not exceeding ten days from the date of the notice of
ejectment, to vacate the premises.
Sec. 55. Redemption of real property before sale.
– After the title to the property shall have become vested in the city
government in the manner provided for in Section fifty-one hereof, and
at any time prior to the sale or the execution of the contract of sale
by the city treasurer to a third party, the original owner or his legal
representative or any person having any lien, right, or other legal
interest or equity in said property, shall have the right to redeem the
entire property in question, by paying the full amount of taxes and
penalties due thereon at the time of the seizure, and if the city
treasurer shall have entered into a lease of the property, the
redemption shall be made subject to said lease: provided, that the
payment of the price of sale may, at the discretion of the purchaser,
be made in installment, extending over a period not exceeding twelve
months, but initial payment, which must be made on the date of the
filing of the application for redemption, and every subsequent payment,
shall not be less than twenty-five per centum of the entire sum due,
and shall in no case be less than two pesos, unless the total or the
balance of the amount due on all seized property from the taxpayer is
less than two pesos. The purchaser may occupy the property after paying
the first installment and the usual taxes on the property shall be
payable in the year after that in which the application for redemption
was approved. Any failure of the purchaser to pay an installment on the
date it is due shall have the effect of a forfeiture to the city
government of any partial payment made by said purchaser, and in case
he has taken possession of the property, he shall forthwith surrender
the same to the city government. In case the purchaser should fail to
relinquish possession of said property, the city treasurer or his
deputy shall forthwith adopt measures to eject therefrom all the
tenants or occupants thereof as provided for in this Act: provided,
however, that the original owner of any real estate seized prior to the
approval of this Act, who redeems the same within six months subsequent
to its approval, is hereby released from any obligation he may have to
the government for rent for the use of such property: provided,
finally, that the provision of this section shall apply to redemption
of real estate seized for delinquency in the payment of taxes thereon
and not redeemed up to the date of the approval of this Act.
Sec. 56. Notice of sale of real estate at public
auction. – At any time after the forfeiture of any real estate shall
have become absolute, the treasurer, pursuant to the rules of procedure
to be promulgated by the Department Head, may announce the sale of the
real estate seized on account of delinquency of which no application
has been filed. Such announcement shall be made by posting a notice for
three consecutive weeks at the main entrance of the city hall and of
all the municipal buildings of the province, in either English or
Spanish, and in the dialect commonly used in the locality, and by
publishing the same once a week during three consecutive weeks in a
newspaper of general circulation in the city. Copies of such notice
shall be sent immediately by registered mail to the delinquent taxpayer
at the latter's home address, if known. The notice shall state the
amount of the taxes and penalties so due, the time and place of sale,
the name of the taxpayer against whom the taxes are levied, and the
approximate area, the lot number and the location by district and
street and the street number and district or barrio where the real
estate to be sold is located.
Sec. 57. Sale of real estate – Conditions. – At
any time during the sale of prior thereto, the taxpayer may stay the
proceedings by paying the taxes and penalties to the city treasurer or
his deputy. Otherwise the sale shall proceed and shall be held either
at the main entrance of the city hall or on the premises of the real
estate to be sold as the city treasurer or his deputy may determine.
The payment of the sale price may, at the option of the purchaser, be
made in installment covering a period not exceeding twelve months, but
the initial payment which shall be made at the time of the sale, and
each subsequent payment shall not be less than twenty five per centum
of the sale price and shall in no case be less than two pesos, unless
the total or the balance of the amount due on all seized property in
the name of the taxpayer is less than two pesos. The purchaser may
occupy the property after paying the first installment, and the usual
taxes on the property shall be payable in the year following that in
which the sale took place. Any failure of the purchaser to pay the
total price of the sale within twelve months from the date thereof,
shall be sufficient ground for its cancellation, and any part payment
made shall revert to the city government and if the purchaser has taken
possession of the property he shall forthwith surrender the same to the
city government. In case the purchaser should fail to relinquish
possession of the property, the city treasurer or his deputy shall
immediately take steps to eject the tenants or occupants of the
property in accordance with the procedure prescribed in Section
fifty-four of this Act.
The city treasurer or his deputy shall make a report of the sale to the
Municipal Board within five days after the sale and shall make the same
appear on its record. The purchaser at this sale shall receive from the
city treasurer or his deputy a certificate showing the proceedings of
the sale, describing the property sold, stating the name of the
purchaser, the sale price, the condition of payment, the amount paid,
and the exact amount of the taxes and penalties.
Sec. 58. Redemption of real estate after sale. –
Within one year from and after the date of sale, the delinquent
taxpayer or any other person in his behalf, shall have the right to
redeem the property sold by paying to the city treasurer or his deputy
the amount of the taxes, penalties, costs and interest at the rate of
twelve per centum per annum on the purchase price, if paid in whole, or
on any portion thereof as may have been paid by the purchaser and such
payment shall invalidate the certificate of sale to the purchaser, if,
any, and shall entitle the person making such payment to a certificate
to be issued by the city treasurer or his deputy, stating that he has
thus redeemed the property, and the city treasurer or his deputy, upon
the return by the purchaser of the certificate of sale previously
issued to him shall forthwith refund to the purchaser the entire sum
paid by him with interest at twelve per centum per annum, as provided
for herein, and such property shall thereafter be free from the lien of
such taxes and penalties.
Sec. 59. Execution of deed of final sale. – In
case the delinquent taxpayer shall not redeem the property sold as
herein provided within one year from the date of the sale, and the
purchaser shall then have paid the total purchase price, the city
treasurer, as guarantor, shall execute a deed in form and effect
sufficient to convey to the purchaser so much of the real estate
against which the taxes have been assessed as has been sold, and said
deed shall succinctly recite all the proceedings upon which the
validity of the sale depends. Any balance remaining from the proceeds
upon which the validity of the sale after deducting the amount of the
taxes and penalties due, and the costs, if any, shall be returned to
the original owner or his representatives.
Sec. 60. Taxes and penalties which shall be paid
upon redemption or repurchase. – The taxes and penalties to be paid by
way of redemption or repurchase, shall comprise in all cases only the
original tax by virtue of the failure to pay for which the seizure was
made, and its incidental penalties, up to the date of the forfeiture of
the real estate to the government.
Sec. 61. Taxes – Legal procedure. – (a) The
assessment of a tax shall constitute a lawful indebtedness of the
taxpayer to the city which may be enforced by a civil action in any
court of competent jurisdiction, and this remedy shall be in addition
to all remedies provided by law.
(b) No court shall entertain any suit assailing the
validity of a tax assessed under this Charter, until the taxpayer shall
have paid, under protest, the taxes assessed, against him nor shall any
court declare any tax invalid by reason of irregularities or
informalities in the proceedings of the officers charged with the
assessment or collection of the taxes or of a failure to perform their
duties within the time specified for their performance, unless such
irregularities, informalities or failure shall have impaired the
substantial rights of the taxpayer.
(c) No court shall entertain any suit assailing the
validity of the tax sale of land under this Charter until the taxpayer
shall have paid into the court the amount for which the land was sold,
together with the interest at the rate of twelve per centum per annum
upon the sum from the date of sale to the time of instituting the suit.
The money so paid into court shall belong and shall be delivered to the
purchaser at the tax sale, if the deed is declared invalid, and shall
be returned to the depositor, should he fail in his action.
(d) No court shall declare any such sale invalid by
reason of any irregularities or informalities in the proceedings of the
officer charged with the duty of making the sale, or by reason of
failure by him to perform his duties within the time herein specified
for their performance, unless such irregularities, informalities, or
failure shall have impaired the substantial rights of the taxpayer.
ARTICLE XI
Tax allotments and Special Assessment for public improvements
Sec. 62. Allotment of internal revenue and other
taxes. – Of the internal revenue accruing to the National Treasury
under Chapter II, Title XII of Commonwealth Act Numbered Four hundred
and sixty-six, and other taxes collected by the National Government and
allotted to the various provinces, as well as the national aid for
schools, the City of Cadiz shall receive a share equal to what it would
receive if it were a regularly organized province: provided, that the
Province of Negros Occidental may grant financial or material aid to
the City of Cadiz in case the financial condition of the city do not
warrant the prosecution of public works projects therein: provided,
further, that all income taxes derived from sources within the
territorial jurisdiction of the City of Cadiz shall be paid to the city
and even if paid in other places the same shall be credited and
remitted to the said city. This does not however preclude other
taxpayers from filing their income taxes from other places and sources
likewise to the said city.
Sec. 63. Power to levy special assessment for
certain purposes. – The Municipal Board, may, by ordinance, provide for
the levying and collection, by special assessment of the lands
comprised within the district or section of the city specially
benefited, of a part not to exceed sixty per centum of the cost of
laying out, opening, constructing, straightening, widening, extending,
grading, paving, curbing, walling, deepening, nor otherwise
establishing, repairing, enlarging, or improving public avenues, roads,
streets, alleys, sidewalks, parks, plazas, bridges, landing places,
wharves, piers, docks, levees, reservoirs, waterworks, water mains,
water courses, esteros, canals, drains, and sewers including the cost
acquiring the necessary land and public improvements thereon as
hereinafter provided.
In case of national public works the Municipal Board as an agency of
the National Government shall, when the Mayor so directs it, province
for the levying and collection by special assessment of the lands
within the section or district of the city specially benefited of the
cost or a part thereof to be determined by the mayor, of laying out,
opening, constructing, straightening, widening, extending, grading,
paving, curbing, walling, or deepening, or otherwise repairing,
enlarging, or improving national roads, and other national public works
within the city, including the cost of acquiring the necessary land and
improvements therein.
Sec. 64. Property subject to special assessment.
– All lands comprised within the district or section benefited except
those owned by the Republic of the Philippines shall be subject to the
payment of the special assessment.
Sec. 65. Basis of apportionment. – The amount of
the special assessment shall be apportioned and computed according to
the assessed valuation of such lands as shown in the book of the city
assessor. If the property has not been declared for taxation purposes,
the city assessor shall immediately declare it for the owner and assess
its value, and such value shall be the basis of the apportionment and
computation of the special assessment due thereon.
Sec. 66. Ordinance levying special assessment. –
The ordinance providing for the levying and collection of a special
assessment shall describe with reasonable accuracy the nature, extent,
and location of the work to be undertaken; the probable cost of the
work; and percentage of the cost to be defrayed by special assessment;
the district or section which shall be subject to the payment of the
special assessment, the limits thereof shall be stated by metes and
bounds if practicable, and by other reasonable accurate means if
otherwise, and the period which shall not be less than five nor more
than ten years, in which said special assessment shall be payable
without interest. One uniform rate per centum for all lands in the
entire district or section subject to the payment of all the special
assessment need not be established, but different rates for different
parts or sections of this city according as said property will derive
greater or less benefit from the proposed work, may be fixed.
It shall be the duty of the city engineer to make the plans,
specifications, and estimates of the public works contemplated to be
undertaken.
Sec. 67. Publication of proposed ordinance
levying special assessment. – The proposed special assessment ordinance
shall be published with a list of the owners of the lands affected
thereby, once a week for four consecutive weeks in any newspaper
published in the city, one in English, one in Spanish, and one in the
local dialect, if there be any, and in default of local papers, in any
newspaper of general circulation in the city. The said ordinance in
English, Spanish and the local dialect shall also be posted in places
where public notices are generally posted in the city and also in the
district or section where the public improvement is constructed or
contemplated to be constructed.
The Secretary of the Municipal Board shall, on application, furnish a
copy of the proposed ordinance to each landowner affected, or his agent
and shall, if possible, send to all of them a copy of said proposed
ordinance by ordinary mail or otherwise.
Sec. 68. Protest against special assessment. –
Not later than ten days after the last publication of the ordinance and
the list of landowners, as provided in the preceding section, the
landowners affected, if they compose a majority whose holdings
represent more than one-half of the total assessed value of said lands
may file with the Municipal Board a protest against the enactment of
the ordinance. The protest shall be duly signed by them and shall set
forth the addresses of the signers and the arguments in support of
their objection or protest against the special assessment established
in the ordinance. If no protest is filed within the time and under the
condition above specified, the ordinance shall be considered approved
as published.
Sec. 69. Hearing of protest. – The Municipal
Board shall designate a date and place for the hearing of the protest
filed in accordance with the next preceding section and shall give
reasonable time to all protestants who have given their addresses and
to all landowners affected by any protest or protests, and shall order
the publication once a week for two consecutive weeks, of a notice of
the place and date of the hearing in the same manner herein provided
for the publication of the proposed special assessment ordinance. All
pertinent arguments and evidence presented by the landowners interested
or their attorney shall be attached to the proper records. After the
hearing, the Municipal Board shall either modify its ordinance or
approve it in toto and send notice of its decision to all interested
parties who have given their addresses, and shall order the publication
of the ordinance as approved finally together with a list of the owners
of the parcels of land affected by the special assessment, three times
weekly, for two consecutive weeks, in the same manner hereinabove
prescribed. The ordinance finally passed by said body shall be sent to
the mayor with all the papers pertaining thereto, for his approval or
veto as in the case of other city ordinance. If the mayor approves it,
the ordinance shall be published as above provided, but if he vetoes
it, the procedure in similar cases provided in this Act shall be
observed.
Sec. 70. When ordinance is to take effect. – Upon
the expiration of thirty days from the date of the last publication of
the ordinance as finally approved, the same shall be effective in all
respects, if no appeal therefrom is taken to the proper authorities in
the manner hereinafter prescribed.
Sec. 71. Appeals. – Any time before the ordinance
providing for the levying and collection of special assessment becomes
effective in accordance with the preceding section, appeals from such
special assessment may be filed with the President of the Philippines
in the case of public works undertaken or contemplated to be undertaken
by the National Government, and with the Secretary of Finance in the
case of public works undertaken or contemplated to be undertaken by the
city. In all cases the appeal shall be in writing and signed by at
least a majority of the owners of the lands situated in the special
assessment zone whose holdings represent more than one-half of the
total assessed value of the lands affected. The appellants shall
immediately give the Board a written notice of the appeal, and the
secretary of said board, shall, within ten days after receipt of the
notice of appeal, forward to the officer who has jurisdiction to decide
the appeal an excerpt from the minutes of the Board relative to the
proposed special assessment and all the documents in connection
therewith.
Sec. 72. Decision of the appeal. – Only appeals
made within the time and in the manner prescribed in this Act shall be
entertained, and the officer to whom the appeal is made may call for
further hearing or decide the same in accordance with its merits as
shown in the papers or documents submitted to him. All appeals shall be
decided within sixty days after receipt by the appellate officer of the
docket of the case, and such decision shall be final.
Sec. 73. Fixing of amount of special assessment.
– As soon as the ordinance is in full force and effect, the city
treasurer shall determine the amount of the special assessment which
the owner of each parcel of land comprised within the zone described in
the ordinance levying the same is to pay each year during the
prescribed period, and shall send to each of such landowners a written
notice thereof by ordinary mail. If upon completion of the public works
it should appear that the actual cost thereof is smaller or greater
than the estimated cost, the city treasurer shall without delay proceed
to correct the assessment by increasing, as the case may be, the
special tax or the unpaid annual installments. If all annual
installments have already been paid, the city treasurer shall fix the
amount of credit to be allowed to, or the additional special tax to be
levied upon, the land, as the case may be. In all cases, he shall give
notice of such rectifications to the parties interested.
Sec. 74. Payment of special assessment. – All
sums due from any landowner or owners as the result of any action taken
pursuant to this Act shall be payable to the city treasurer in the same
manner as the annual ordinary tax levied upon real property, and shall
be subject to the same penalties for delinquency and be enforced by the
same means as said annual ordinary tax; and all said sums, together
with any of said penalties shall, from the dates on which they are
assessed, constitute special liens on said land, with the sole
exception of the lien for the nonpayment of the ordinary real property
tax. If, upon recomputation of the amount of special assessment in
accordance with the next preceding section it appears that the
landowner has paid more than what is correctly due from him the amount
paid in excess shall be refunded to him immediately upon demand; in the
other case, the landowner shall have one year within which to pay
without penalty the amount still due from him. Said period shall be
counted from the date the landowner received the proper notice.
Sec. 75. Disposition of proceeds. – The proceeds
of the special assessment and penalties thereon shall be applied
exclusively to the purposes for which the assessments were levied. It
shall be the duty of the city treasurer to turn over to the National
Treasury all collections made by him from special assessment levies for
national public works.
ARTICLE XII
City Budget
Sec. 76. Annual Budget. – At least three months
before the beginning of each fiscal year, the city treasurer shall
present to the mayor a certified detailed statement by department of
all receipts and expenditures of the city pertaining to the preceding
fiscal year, and to the first seven months of the current fiscal year
together with an estimate of the receipts and expenditures for the
remainder of the current fiscal year, and he shall submit with this
statement a detailed estimate of the revenues and receipts of the city
from all sources for the ensuing fiscal year. Upon the receipt of this
statement and estimate and the estimates of department heads as
required by Section twenty of this Charter, the mayor shall formulate
and submit to the Municipal Board at least two and a half months before
the beginning of the ensuing fiscal year, which shall be the basis of
the annual appropriation ordinance: provided, however, that in no case
shall the aggregate amount of such appropriation exceed the estimate of
revenues and receipts submitted by the city treasurer as provided
above: provided, further, that no less than fifteen per centum of the
expected revenues of the city for any fiscal year shall be appropriated
for public improvements for the said fiscal year.
The city budget once approved by the Municipal Board, shall become
effective and operative immediately.
Sec. 77. Supplemental Budget. – Supplemental
budget formulated in the same manner as the annual budget may be
adopted when special or unforeseen circumstances make such action
necessary.
Sec. 78. Failure to enact an appropriation
ordinance. – Whenever the Board fails to enact an appropriation
ordinance for any fiscal year before the end of the previous fiscal
year the several sums appropriated in the last appropriation ordinance,
for the objects and purposes therein specified, shall be deemed to be
reappropriated for the several objects and purposes specified in said
last appropriation ordinance, and shall go into effect on the first day
of the new fiscal year as the appropriation ordinance for the year,
until a new appropriation ordinance is duly enacted.
ARTICLE XIII
The City Court
Sec. 79. Regular, auxiliary and acting judges of
City Court. – There shall be a city for the City of Cadiz for which
there shall be appointed a city judge and an auxiliary city judge.
The city judge may, upon proper application, be allowed a vacation of
not more than thirty days every year with salary. The auxiliary city
judge shall discharge the duties of the city judge in case of absence,
incapacity or inability of the latter until he assumes his post, or
until a new judge shall have been appointed. During his incumbency the
auxiliary city judge shall enjoy the powers, emoluments and privileges
of the city judge who shall not receive any remuneration therefor
except the salary to which he is entitled by reason of his vacation
provided for in this Charter.
In case of absence, incapacity or inability, of both the city judge and
the auxiliary city judge, the Secretary of Justice shall designate the
municipal judge of any of the adjoining municipalities to preside over
the city court, and he shall hold the office temporarily until the
regular incumbent or the auxiliary judge thereof shall have resumed
office, or until another judge shall have been appointed in accordance
with the provisions of this Charter. The municipal judge so designated
shall receive his salary as municipal judge plus seventy per cent of
the salary of the city judge whose office he has temporarily assumed.
The city judge shall receive a salary of not exceeding eleven thousand
four hundred pesos per annum. He shall have his residence in the city.
Sec. 80. Clerk and employees of the City Court. –
There shall be a clerk of the city court who shall be appointed by the
city judge in accordance with Civil Service Law, rules and regulations,
and who shall receive a compensation, to be fixed by ordinance approved
by the Secretary of Justice, at not exceeding four thousand eight
hundred pesos per annum. He shall keep the seal of the court and affix
it to all orders, judgments, certificates, records, and other
documents, issued by the court. He shall keep a docket of the trial in
the court, in which he shall record in a 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,
together with the fines and costs adjudged or collected in accordance
with the judgment. He shall have the power to administer oath. The
clerk of the city court shall at the same time be sheriff to the city
and shall as such have the same power and duties conferred by existing
law to provincial sheriffs. The Municipal Board may provide for such
number of clerks in the office of the clerk of the city court as the
needs of the service may demand.
Sec. 81. Jurisdiction of City Court. – The city
court shall have the same jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases and
the same incidental powers as at present conferred upon them by law. It
shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of First Instance
over all criminal cases arising under the laws relating to gambling and
management of lotteries, to assaults where the intent to kill is not
charged or evident upon the trial, to larceny, embezzlement and estafa
where the amount of money or property stolen, embezzled or otherwise
involved does not exceed the sum or value of two hundred pesos, to the
sale of intoxicating liquors, to falsely impersonating an officer, to
malicious mischief, to trespass on government or private property, and
to threatening to take human life. It may also conduct preliminary
investigations for any offense, without regard to the limits of
punishment and may release or commit and bind over any person charged
with such offense to secure his appearance before the proper court.
Sec. 82. Incidental power of City Court. – The
city court shall have power to administer oaths and to give
certificates thereof; to issue summons, writs, warrants, executions,
and all other processes necessary to enforce its orders and judgments;
to compel the attendance of witnesses; to punish contempts of court by
fine or imprisonment, or both, within the limitation imposed by the
law; and require of any person arrested a bond for good behavior or to
keep the peace, or for the further appearance of such person before a
court of competent jurisdiction. But no such bond shall be accepted
unless it be executed by the person in whose behalf it is made, with
sufficient surety or sureties to be approved by said court.
Sec. 83. Procedure in City Court in prosecutions
for violations of law and ordinance. – In a prosecution for the
violations of any ordinance, the first process shall be a summons,
except that a warrant for the arrest of the offender may be issued in
the first instance upon the affidavit of any person that such ordinance
has been violated, and that the person making the complaint has
reasonable grounds to believe that the party charged is guilty thereof,
which warrant shall conclude: "Against the ordinance of the city in
such cases made and provided." All proceedings and prosecutions for
offenses against the laws of the Philippines shall conform to the rules
relating to process, pleadings, practice, and procedure for the
judiciary of the Philippines, and such rules shall govern the city
court and its officers in the cases in so far as the same may be
applicable.
Sec. 84. Costs, fees, fines, and forfeitures in
City Court. – There shall be taxed against and collected from the
defendant, in case of his conviction in the city court, such cost and
fees as may be prescribed by law in criminal cases in municipal courts.
All costs, fines and forfeitures shall be collected by the clerk of
court, who shall keep a docket of those imposed and of those collected
and shall pay collections of the same to the city treasurer, for the
benefit of the city, on the next business day after the same are
collected, and take receipts therefor. The city judge shall examine
said docket each day, compare the same with the amount receipted for by
the city treasurer and satisfy himself that all such costs, fees, fines
and forfeitures have been duly accounted for.
Sec. 85. No person sentenced by the City Court to
be confined without commitment. – No person shall be confined in prison
by sentence of the city court until the warden or officer in charge of
the prison shall receive a written commitment showing the offense for
which the prisoner was tried, the date of trial, the exact terms of the
judgment or sentence, and the date of the order of the commitment. The
clerk shall, under seal of the court, issue a commitment in each case
of sentence to imprisonment.
Sec. 86. Procedure on appeal from City Court to
Court of First Instance. – An appeal shall lie to the Court of First
Instance in all cases where fine or imprisonment, or both, is imposed
by the city court. The party desiring to appeal shall, before six
o'clock post meridian of the fifteenth day after the notice of the
judgment by the city court, file with clerk of court a written
statement that he appeals to the Court of First Instance. The filing of
such statement shall perfect the appeal. The judge of the court from
whose decision appeal is taken shall, within five days after the appeal
is taken, transmit to the clerk of Court of First Instance a certified
copy of the record of proceedings and all the original papers and
processes in the case. A perfected appeal shall operate to vacate the
judgment of the city court, and the action, when duly entered in the
Court of First Instance, shall stand for trial de novo upon its merits
as though the same had never been tried. Pending an appeal, the
defendant shall remain in custody unless released in the discretion of
the judge of the city court or of the judge of the Court of First
Instance, upon sufficient bail in accordance with procedure in force,
to await judgment of the appellate court. Appeals in civil cases shall
be governed by the ordinary proceeding established by law.
Sec. 87. Judicial notices of ordinance. – All
courts sitting in the city shall take judicial notice of the ordinances
passed by the City Council.
Sec. 88. Attendance in Court, permission to
pursue other vocation. – The city or auxiliary city judge when
discharging the duties of the city judge shall be present at least four
hours on each business day in his office or at the place where the
court is held, but he may, after officer hours, within the permission
of the Secretary of Justice, pursue any other vocation or hold other
office or position.
ARTICLE XIV
Bureaus Performing Municipal Duties
Sec. 89. General Auditing Office – City Auditor.
– The city auditor, under the supervision of the Auditor General, shall
receive and audit all accounts of the city, in accordance with the
provisions of law relating to government accounts and accounting. He
shall be appointed by the Auditor General and shall receive a salary of
not exceeding eleven thousand pesos per annum, payable half by the
National Government and half from the funds of the city.
Sec. 90. The Bureau of Supply Coordination. – The
purchasing agent shall purchase and supply in accordance with law all
supplies, equipment, and property of every kind, except real estate for
the use of the city and its departments or offices. But contracts for
completed work of any kind for the use of the city, or any of its
departments or offices, involving both labor and materials, where the
materials are furnished, by the contractor, shall not be deemed to be
within the purview of this section.
Sec. 91. The Bureau of Public Schools. – The
Director of Public Schools shall exercise only supervisory power in
respect to public schools in the City of Cadiz, and the city
superintendent of schools, to be appointed by the mayor, shall have all
the powers and duties in respect to the schools of the city as are
vested in division superintendents in respect to the schools of their
divisions.
A city school board of six members, two of whom shall be women, and who
shall serve without salary, shall be selected and removed in the same
manner and shall have the same powers and duties as local school boards
in the municipalities.
The Municipal Board shall have the same powers in respect to the
establishment of schools in Cadiz as are conferred by law on municipal
councils.
Sec. 92. Salaries of intermediate school
teachers. – The salaries of all intermediate school teachers in the
City of Cadiz shall be paid by the National Government, however, those
matters in relation to the annual report of the condition of the
schools and school buildings of the city, and such recommendations as
seem to him wise in respect to the number of teachers, new buildings to
be erected and all other similar matters, such as improvement of
schools or school buildings of the city, in which case the city
superintendent of schools shall make an annual report to the mayor. The
local school board shall make a similar annual report to the Mayor.
ARTICLE XV
Transitory Provisions
Sec. 93. Change of Government. – The city
government provided for in this Charter shall be organized within
thirty days after approval.
The incumbent mayor, vice-mayor and members of the Municipal Council of
the Municipality of Cadiz shall continue in office as mayor, vice-mayor
and members of the Municipal Board of the City, respectively, until the
expiration of their present terms of office.
Sec. 94. This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
Approved: June 17, 1967
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