Amendments to Charter of Iloilo City Re: Creation of Department of Public Services

June 22, 1963

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 3671

AN ACT AMENDING CERTAIN SECTIONS OF THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF ILOILO BY CREATING A DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICES

SECTION 1. The first, second and third paragraphs of Section twenty-three of Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred fifty-eight, otherwise known as the Charter of the City of Iloilo, as amended, are further amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 23. City Departments. — There shall be the following city departments over which the Mayor shall have general supervisory control:

"1. Department of Finance and Assessment.

"2. Department of Engineering and Public Works.

"3. Legal Department.

"4. Police and Fire Department.

"5. Department of Public Services.

"The board may from time to time make such re-adjustments of the duties of the several departments as the public interest may demand.

"The chiefs of departments shall receive the annual salaries provided for in Republic Act Numbered Eight hundred forty, as amended, and six thousand pesos for the city public service officer."

SECTION 2. A new article and a new section to be known as Article VIII-A and Section sixty-nine-A, respectively, are hereby inserted between Sections sixty-nine and seventy of the same Act, to read as follows:

"ARTICLE VIII-A. — Department of Public Services

"SEC. 69-A. City Public Service Officer. — There shall be a city public service officer who shall be appointed by the Mayor and shall have charge of the Department of Public Services. He shall have the following powers and duties:

"a. Library services. — He shall have general supervision and control over the Iloilo City Public Library.

"b. Social services. — He shall have general supervision and control over all the social services of the City of Iloilo which include the Iloilo City SWA and the Iloilo Free Vocational Training Center. cdt

"c. Sanitation services. — He shall have general supervision and control over the sanitary building and plumbing inspection service; care, custody and cleaning of all public buildings, including markets and slaughterhouses and buildings rented for city purposes; public toilets, collection and disposal of garbage, refuse, contents of toilets and cesspools, and other offensive and dangerous substances within the city; spraying, cleaning and sweeping of national and city streets within the city limits; cleaning of street canals; inspection of hotels, bars, nightclubs, restaurants, gymnasium, cockpits, stadia and arenas, and other places of amusements; and shall report to the Mayor upon the condition of public property and public works.

"d. Rural urban service. — He shall have supervision and control over all public plazas, public playgrounds and cemeteries.

"e. He shall have authority to charge, at rates to be fixed by the municipal board with the approval of the City Mayor, fees for public services and supplies furnished by his department to private parties.

"f. He shall have authority to declare that any lot or ground within the City of Iloilo belonging to any person or corporation or to the National Government, or any branch or political subdivision thereof, is so low, excavated or walled, diked or dammed as to admit or cause the formation on the surface thereof of stagnant or foul water, or that it is a nuisance or a menace to public health, unless filled in or its sanitary condition otherwise improved, and shall communicate same to the Mayor.

"g. He shall execute and enforce all laws, ordinances, and regulations relating to public services.

"h. He shall recommend to the municipal board the passage of ordinance as he may deem necessary for the better and more adequate extension of public services.

"i. He shall cause to be prosecuted all violations of laws, ordinances or regulations relating to public services.

"All powers and duties enumerated here which formerly belonged to and were exercised by the Department of Engineering and Public Works and other departments shall henceforth be taken away or removed from them and the same shall be exercised and performed by the public service officer of Iloilo City."

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 22, 1963

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 59, No. 41, p. 7038 on October 14, 1963